Because effective tools for screening and prevention are widely available, reducing the number of cases and deaths associated with cervical cancer is a key goal emphasized by the U.S. Public Health Service. In no small part, cervical cancer persists as a significant public health issue because many women lack access to pap tests and other types of preventive health care.

Harris County is home to large populations of women at exceptionally high risk of developing cervical cancer and dying from this disease. The Harris County Hospital District (HCHD) is the 3rd large public health system in the United States. Despite its size, HCHD lacks the resources to provide cervical cancer screening and ...

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Because effective tools for screening and prevention are widely available, reducing the number of cases and deaths associated with cervical cancer is a key goal emphasized by the U.S. Public Health Service. In no small part, cervical cancer persists as a significant public health issue because many women lack access to pap tests and other types of preventive health care.

Harris County is home to large populations of women at exceptionally high risk of developing cervical cancer and dying from this disease. The Harris County Hospital District (HCHD) is the 3rd large public health system in the United States. Despite its size, HCHD lacks the resources to provide cervical cancer screening and prevention for the many women who need these services but are otherwise unable to obtain them because they lack economic resources.

We plan to implement a comprehensive program to screen more than 10,000 uninsured and underinsured women for cervical cancer in partnership with HCHD. This program will draw on the unique expertise of experienced gynecologic oncologists, gynecologists and epidemiologists at The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center and Baylor College of Medicine.

Often, women at highest risk for cervical cancer also lack the resources to be evaluated and treated for abnormal pap results. Therefore, a key aspect of our proposal is the mechanisms we have developed to help insure that high risk women with abnormal pap smears are evaluated and treated in a timely fashion.

Outcomes of each of the proposed programs will be carefully monitored to insure its timely implementation and the delivery of services to the planned numbers of people. Specific outcome measures have been proposed to facilitate these assessments.

Lastly, experience gained with this proposal will help each of the involved institutions determine how they may be able to modify the services we currently offer to better assist women at high risk for cervical cancer in Harris County in the future. We believe that the insight gained from the programs implemented as part of this proposal will lead to long term changes at all three institutions that should continue to ameliorate the impact of cervical cancer throughout the Houston metroplex. These programs could also be adopted for use by other locales with high rates of cervical cancer.

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