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Cancer Control Research

Abstract

It is known that women who are first degree relatives of breast cancer patients are at greater risk for developing breast cancer than other women in the same age group. The proposed study is targeted at this special group of high risk women, in an attempt to increase their utilization of screening mammography. A randomized pretest-posttest control group design will be used to evaluate the effectiveness of a targeted mail-out intervention, which will emphasize family history as a risk factor in breast cancer, the efficacy and importance of mammography, and the NCI age specific screening mammography guidelines for high risk women. Specifically, the study seeks to accomplish the following: 1. Use the California State Tumor Registry to obtain a statewide census of breast cancer cases. 2. Randomly sample the breast cancer cases to identify and seek permission to contact eligible female relatives. 3. Using the above procedure, obtain a sample of approximately 1500 women who are: first degree relatives of breast cancer patients, over the age of 40, and who themselves have never had breast cancer. 4. Contact these women in order to enroll them into the study, and collect baseline data on screening behaviors, as well as knowledge, attitudes and beliefs related to breast cancer and its early detection. 5. After randomization, implement the intervention in the experimental group. 6. Evaluate the effectiveness of the intervention in increasing rates of screening mammography and physician breast exam. 7. Evaluate the feasibility of adopting the intervention into the routine operations of local tumor registries.