Cancer Screening Adherence Among African American Cancer Survivors

Authors: Bock CH, Ruterbusch JJ, Bolton S, Manning M, Pandolfi SS, Baird TE, Beebe-Dimmer JL, Schwartz AG

Category: Early Detection & Risk Prediction
Conference Year: 2020

Abstract Body:
Purpose: The goal of this study is to evaluate adherence to colorectal, breast, cervical, and prostate cancer screening guidelines and targets for non-index cancers among African American (AA) cancer survivors. Methods: The Detroit Research on Cancer Survivors (ROCS) cohort study is currently enrolling recently diagnosed African American lung, breast, prostate, and colorectal cancer cases to prospectively evaluate quality of life and other outcomes after cancer diagnosis. Self-reported data from the first 1500 ROCS baseline interviews, completed on average 19 months (median: 14 months) after diagnosis, were used to evaluate screening behaviors of AA breast, prostate, colorectal, and lung cancer survivors. All respondents were asked if they ever received a sigmoidoscopy or colonoscopy. Female respondents were asked about mammography and papanicolaou (PAP) testing ever or in the past year, and male respondents were asked about prostate-specific antigen (PSA) testing ever or in the past year. Here we report the proportion of cases undergoing screening for cancers other than the one they were diagnosed with, within recommended age groups, ever and in the past year. Results: Among breast, prostate, and lung cancer cases ages 50 and older, 71% reported ever having had a colonoscopy or sigmoidoscopy for colorectal cancer screening. 94% of women at least 40 years old and diagnosed with colorectal or lung cancer reported ever having had a mammogram, and 52% of these women reported having a mammogram within the past year. Among all female cancer survivors in the cohort ages 30-65, 90% reported ever having a PAP test, and 48% reported having one in the past year. Among men ages 55 years and older diagnosed with colorectal or lung cancer, 61% reported having ever had a PSA test, but only 38% reported a PSA test in the past year. Conclusions: Breast, cervical, and prostate cancer screening rates for AA discordant cancer survivors well exceed the Healthy People 2020 targets for percent of age-eligible individuals to discuss screening with their health care provider. Compliance with USPSTF colorectal cancer guidelines is 71% among AA breast, prostate, and lung cancer survivors. While these cases are doing better than the targets, there is still room for improvement.

Keywords: screening, African American, survivorship