Each year 95,000 American women are diagnosed with a gynecological cancer and one third of those will die from the disease. The American Cancer Society estimates that in 2014 there will be 40,000 women who will die from breast cancer. However, organizations such as American cancer Society and Foundation for Women’s Cancer work together to raise awareness and help keep women alive.
September is Gynecological Cancer Awareness Month and October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. The Foundation for Women’s Cancer says that gynecological cancers are rarely talked about. Most of these cancers, with the exception of cervical cancer, have no early diagnostic tools.
State of Alaska’s Shelley Grigsby says there are programs set in place for women of the state to screen for these cancers.
“The Breast and Cervical health Check Program is a federally funded program run through the state. It pays for low income women to have pap smears and mammograms done because breast and cervical cancers are screenable cancers.”
According to a study by Soroptimist International of the Americas high-income women tend to experience higher rates of cancers than low-income women. However, high income women also experience significantly higher survival rates. One year after diagnosis, survival rates were lower for low-income breast cancer patients than high-income patients. The study states there are a number of factors that could explain this trend; insufficient financial resources to screen for and treat cancer, poorly structured health care systems and low public awareness.
Grigsby says the Breast and Cervical Health Check Program has requirements that must be met in order for an Alaskan woman to receive treatment.
“We do an income test, the income is under 250% of the poverty guidelines and that’s based on family members. And then we refer those women to providers that we have contracts with that would do a pap smear, office visit, refer for a mammogram if they need that. And then through this program they can also do all the follow up tests if they get an abnormal on their pap test they would go on to other tests. We would pay for those tests up to the point of diagnosis. And then the last thing is Medicaid funds set aside for women diagnosed through these programs that would allow them to be in treatment covered by Medicaid for the time that the treatment is happening.”
Grigsby says Alaska has five grantees that receive the federal funding for cancer health care, including four tribal groups. However, there is currently no contracted providers for the Breast and Cervical Health Check Program in Dillingham. The US Census Bureau shows 11.7 percent of Dillingham residents living below the poverty level. Grigsby is hopeful that programs for women cancer screening will expand to areas like Dillingham.