Effort targets immigrant cervical cancer

Reported January 31, 2008

HOUSTON, Jan. 31 (UPI) -- Two Texas hospitals are expanding an effort to lower the risks of cervical cancer among Mexican women in U.S. border areas.

Lead investigator Theresa Byrd said that the National Cancer Institute says that although cervical cancer incidence and mortality rates have declined by 50 percent in the United States over the past three decades, the disease is a serious health threat for Hispanic women.

"Rates of cervical cancer are higher among women of Mexican heritage than among non-Hispanic white women," Byrd said.
 

The project is a collaboration among a community health advisory group, community health educators and researchers from the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston and The University of Texas School of Public Health El Paso.

The development of the project -- named AMIGAS -- was based on identifying which factors influenced Pap test screening among Latinas, as well as the best methods, strategies and messages to use,

The project is designed to create awareness of cervical cancer among immigrant Mexican women in the United States.

Source : United Press International.