HOUSTON -- A diagnosis of breast cancer is tough enough for any woman,
but navigating the health care system compounds the problem.
Now, a woman newly diagnosed with breast cancer in the Harris County Hospital
District has a guide or “navigator,” thanks to participants in the upcoming Avon
Walk for Breast Cancer. A $150,000 grant to the Lester and Sue Smith Breast
Center in the Dan L. Duncan Cancer Center at Baylor College of Medicine in
Houston will help recruit those guides called patient “navigators.” The grant
will be awarded in ceremonies at this year’s Avon Walk in Houston, scheduled
April 4-5.
In addition, nearly $150,000 raised in the walk will help support research into
the effects of pregnancy on breast cancer risk now ongoing in the laboratory of
Dr. Daniel Medina, professor of molecular and cellular biology at BCM.
“The patient navigators will enable health information to be collected in
advance of appointments and would free up technicians to do more screening,”
said Dr. C. Kent Osborne, director of the Smith Breast Center and the Duncan
Cancer Center. “This is especially important because our patient base is
expanding due to the economic downturn.”
The navigators will be part of a Breast Center program that supports underserved
women in the Harris County Health District.
The program, called Pink 4 Life, provides assistance for medically under or
uninsured women who are undergoing treatment for breast cancer at Ben Taub
General Hospital. It aims to increase awareness and raise funds to expand
services such as screening, diagnosis and treatment.
Pink 4 Life was started by the Breast Center Advisory Council at BCM and is
supported by the Pink Ribbon House fundraiser, the Kappa Kappa Gamma Charitable
Foundation and the Avon Foundation for Women.
“Pink 4 Life benefits patients being treated for breast cancer in the Harris
County Hospital District,” said Dr. Jenny C.N. Chang, professor of medicine and
medical director of the Breast Center at BCM. “The funds raised benefit our
patients facing a difficult illness. We are particularly grateful for that kind
of help.”
"The money raised by the walk will help support our study on defining those
changes in the breast that are permanently induced by a pregnancy,” said Medina.
“Our goal is to define a set of changes that will have prognostic significance
for the protective state and can provide a useful and inexpensive tool for
screening."
Additional support for the Ben Taub Breast Oncology Clinic comes from the Susan
G. Komen Foundation for the Cure.
