BREAST & CERVICAL CANCER EARLY DETECTION PROGRAM

THE NEED:

Around 2 million women are developing breast or cervical cancer every year, according to the first global review, which warns that the diseases could overtake maternal mortality as a cause of death in younger women. Much of the increase in cancer rates is in low income communities. Most worrying, according to CDC, is their finding that breast cancer is rising in younger women of reproductive age, between 15 and 49.

The YWCA collaborates with The New Mexico Department of Health Breast and Cervical Cancer (BCC) Early Detection Program. The BCC program is dedicated to improving access to high-quality breast and cervical cancer screening and diagnostic services for women who are under served, and to increasing public awareness through education about prevention, disease processes and the importance of regular screening exams for early detection.

VISION: 

Healthy women living cancer-free.

MISSION: 

To lead and support breast and cervical cancer screening to save lives.

GOALS:

• Reduce breast and cervical cancer mortality through public health approaches.
• Address environmental factors to plan, manage, and communicate priorities.
• Provide the highest level of support to grantees to maximize their performance

• 1,100 women will be diagnosed with breast cancer
• 220 women will die of breast cancer

• Approximately 80 women in New Mexico are diagnosed with invasive cervical cancer each year.
• About 22 New Mexican women die from the disease each year.
• Almost two thirds of the women newly diagnosed with invasive cervical cancer are under age 55, but approximately two out of every three cervical cancer deaths occur among women ages 55 and older.
• About 88% of women who are diagnosed early through Pap test survive five years or more.

The New Mexico Department of Health Breast and Cervical Cancer Early Detection Program, The Anita Salas Memorial Fund, Nancy Floyd Haworth Foundation and the National Breast and Cervical Cancer Early Detection Program (NBCCEDP), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

REFERENCES:

http://www.cancernm.org/bcc/

http://www.cdc.gov/cancer/nbccedp/