A mobile mammography van to serve marginalized and hard to reach populations will soon increase access to breast cancer screening and diagnostic services. It will also serve as a data collection hub for health equity research. The cancer center’s first-ever “mammovan” will be part of a new study conducted by cancer researcher Diana Miglioretti.
Services will include multilingual care, health education, genetic screening and breast imaging. Data collected from this program will help build a repository of longitudinal data on breast cancer screening, diagnosis and treatment to develop effective, individualized care for women who may not otherwise have access to a cancer prevention clinic. The data collected also will be used to evaluate risk prediction models and screening strategies that are primarily based on white patients and therefore may not be accurate for all women.
The project will draw on expertise from Shadi Aminololama-Shakeri, chief of breast radiology at UC Davis Health, as well as Laura Fejerman, a leading researcher of breast cancer in the Hispanic/Latina population and co-director of the cancer center’s new Women’s Cancer Care and Research Program (WeCARE).
