Treatment May Reduce Disease Among Latinas, Other Ethnic Groups.(Brief Article)

2001 NOV 15 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Reducing cervical cancer deaths among American Latinas will require more concerted educational programs and streamlined office visits, a University of California Irvine College of Medicine study has found.

The study, conducted with more than 500 patients at clinics at the UCI Medical Center, indicates that physicians and public health departments need to design more sensitive, convenient forms of health care access and find ways to increase awareness of the risks of the disease. The study's results were presented at the annual meeting of the American Public Health Association in Atlanta, Georgia.

Cervical cancer is second only to breast cancer in incidence among women. It is easily treatable if caught in its early stages. Still, the cancer is one of the deadliest, with 4,900 deaths out of 15,700 new cases every year, according to the National Cancer Institute (NCI). The cancer is associated with the HPV virus and is diagnosed with the help of a screening technique known as the Pap smear.

While Pap smear screening has resulted in a steep drop in deaths from cervical cancer, women from certain ethnic groups and from low-income backgrounds still have high rates of the disease. Most researchers and physicians blame a lack of follow-up exams after Pap smear screening for these higher rates.

Dr. Alberto Manetta, professor of gynecological oncology, and Sue Howe, an analyst in the College of Medicine, and their colleagues found that Latinas in a community health clinic were far less likely than non-Latinas to know what they need to do after the doctor finds an abnormal Pap smear. Latinas also were less likely to believe that cervical cancer was curable and less likely to return for further treatment after the Pap smear found abnormal growth. The researchers found, in fact, that nearly 40% of women with abnormal Pap smears did not return for treatment.

"This study shows us two major reasons why cervical cancer rates are higher in this ethnic group," Manetta ...