An Organized Approach to Multi-Organ Screening in Rural Honduras

Abstract

Background: Poverty, poor healthcare infrastructure and geographic location contribute to a total lack of cancer screening for most residents of rural Honduras. Three projects built upon each other to develop, with local leaders, multiorgan screening events that mitigated barriers to screening-based early detection of cancers. Targeted barriers included transportation, cost, community perception and convenience. Aim: To test a novel system of multiorgan screening for feasibility, acceptability and effectiveness. Methods: Leveraging well-known brigade-style medical outreach methods, two large-scale weekend programs for women and one for men over four years in the same rural location screened women for cancers of the cervix, breast, oral cavity, thyroid; and men for cancers of the testes, oral cavity, skin, prostate and colon; and connected participants with follow-up care at a Honduran cancer center. Screening methods ranged from simple throat palpation for thyroid lesions to molecular screening for high risk HPV. Generally, screening began with low-tech methods onsite to triage the participants and identify those at high-risk for cancer who should have more technical follow-up at an equipped clinic. Well-trained Honduran medical students provided screening capacity and community leaders were solely responsible for promoting the screening opportunities. Masking was not possible onsite, but data analysis in the U.S. was anonymized. Results: Participants were accrued to each program's capacity (n=400) in 2013 and 2016 and near capacity in 2017 with high levels of participants completing the screening programs, community engagement with the process, and compliance with referrals for clinical follow-up at a collaborating cancer center located three hours away. Participants identified at the screenings for clinical follow-up included for women: breast 2.7% (2013) and 4.2% (2016), thyroid 1.7% (2016), cervix/positive for high risk HPV 8.2% (2013) and 11.8% (2016); and for men all in 2017: skin 0%, testes 7%, colorectal 1%, oropharynx 1 participant, and prostate 6.7%. The dominant local narrative predicted men would not participate in screening, yet 326 participated and of that group, 239 self-identified as having possible colorectal symptoms based on seeing an advertising flyer with questions about symptoms of constipation, bloody stools, or unintended weight loss. That self-identified subset took the initiative to see the local nurse in advance, obtain a colorectal sample kit, collect three days of stool samples, and bring them to the screening event. Conclusion: With community engagement and attention to planning for organized and rapid throughput, large-scale multiorgan cancer screening may be feasible in low-income rural communities. Funding: The Jornada studies were funded by Norris Cotton Cancer Center at Dartmouth's Geisel School of Medicine and a special grant from Geisel's Munck-Pfefferkorn Fund.