Proportion of late-stage diagnoses for breast cancer among women in Connecticut.
Current Value
27.80%
Definition
Story Behind the Curve
Story Behind the Curve: The stage of a cancer describes the severity of the disease at the time of diagnosis. Cancers detected early usually have better prognosis and respond better to treatment. 29% of all women diagnosed with breast cancer in Connecticut in the period 2012 to 2016 were diagnosed with late stage (regional or distant) disease.
Date of next data update: Aug 15th, 2024
Partners
Potential Partners
- Connecticut Department of Social Services
- Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection
- Connecticut State Department of Education
- Office of the Healthcare Advocate
- Hospitals
- Local public health agencies
- Federally-qualified health centers
- Health care providers including oncology nurses and oncologists
- Visiting nurses associations
- Health care providers of palliative and hospice care
- Radiology facilities
- Health professional associations
- Health insurers
- American Cancer Society
- Connecticut Cancer Partnership
- Pharmaceutical companies
- Patient advocates
- Schools of public health, allied health, nursing, and medicine
- Community-based organizations
- Faith-based organizations
What Works
Diagnoses of late-stage breast cancers are often the result of women initiating mammography later than recommended, not having mammography at recommended intervals, or are not receiving appropriate and timely follow-up of abnormal results, when indicated.
To ensure that all women who are age-appropriate receive the needed screening services, the Community Preventive Services Task Force recommends:
- evidence-based client reminder systems
- small media targeted at specific populations in selected geographic locations
- group education
- one-on-one education
- reducing structural barriers that prevent women from getting mammograms
- reducing client out-of-pocket costs
- evidence-based health care provider reminder systems
- evidence-based health care provider assessment and feedback systems
Strategy
Potential Strategies
- Conduct public education and outreach initiatives to educate all women about the advantages of screening, as well as risks and how to access screening services
- Collaborate with large health systems to implement evidence-based client reminder systems, and provider assessment and feedback systems to improve referrals for mammograms
- Utilize community health workers to conduct one-on-one and group education about the importance of breast cancer screening at regular intervals, to assist with reducing structural barriers, and to provide support during treatment
- Utilize clinical health navigators to provide care coordination and patient navigation services to help all women with positive results get appropriate follow-up care, to assist with reducing structural barriers related to that follow-up care, and to provide support during treatment
- Collaborate with partners to increase availability of no-cost or low-cost mammograms, and funding resources for treatment costs
- Conduct targeted education and outreach initiatives in areas with high proportion of late-stage diagnoses for breast cancer