Breast Cancer Symptoms Research Articles

Knowledge of Breast Cancer among Secondary School Female Teachers in Rivers State

This study assessed the knowledge level of breast cancer among secondary school female teachers in Rivers State. The study was guided by three objectives with equivalent research questions. Descriptive survey design was adopted, with a population comprising of seven thousand, nine hundred and thirty nine secondary school female teachers in Rivers State. A sample size of 720 respondents was selected from ten LGAs in the two areas (upland and riverine area) of Rivers State through a multistage sampling procedure. The instrument for data collection was a validated self- structured questionnaire titled Knowledge Level of Breast Cancer Questionnaire (KLBCQ) with reliability coefficients of 0.82. Data collected were analyzed using percentages, and chi-square. The result of the study indicated that; Secondary school female teachers in Rivers State have average knowledge level (60.6%) of breast cancer. 47.9% have poor knowledge of breast cancer risk factor, 65.7%, have average knowledge of breast cancer signs and symptoms and 74.4% have good knowledge of breast cancer preventive measures. It was concluded that secondary school female teachers in Rivers State have average knowledge level of breast cancer. It was recommended among others that Nollywood actors in collaboration with script writers and producers should constantly write and act dramas on breast cancer, in order to increase awareness and knowledge of breast cancer among the general population.

Applications of different machine learning approaches in prediction of breast cancer diagnosis delay.

The increasing rate of breast cancer (BC) incidence and mortality in Iran has turned this disease into a challenge. A delay in diagnosis leads to more advanced stages of BC and a lower chance of survival, which makes this cancer even more fatal. The present study was aimed at identifying the predicting factors for delayed BC diagnosis in women in Iran. In this study, four machine learning methods, including extreme gradient boosting (XGBoost), random forest (RF), neural networks (NNs), and logistic regression (LR), were applied to analyze the data of 630 women with confirmed BC. Also, different statistical methods, including chi-square, p-value, sensitivity, specificity, accuracy, and area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC), were utilized in different steps of the survey. Thirty percent of patients had a delayed BC diagnosis. Of all the patients with delayed diagnoses, 88.5% were married, 72.1% had an urban residency, and 84.8% had health insurance. The top three important factors in the RF model were urban residency (12.04), breast disease history (11.58), and other comorbidities (10.72). In the XGBoost, urban residency (17.54), having other comorbidities (17.14), and age at first childbirth (>30) (13.13) were the top factors; in the LR model, having other comorbidities (49.41), older age at first childbirth (82.57), and being nulliparous (44.19) were the top factors. Finally, in the NN, it was found that being married (50.05), having a marriage age above 30 (18.03), and having other breast disease history (15.83) were the main predicting factors for a delayed BC diagnosis. Machine learning techniques suggest that women with an urban residency who got married or had their first child at an age older than 30 and those without children are at a higher risk of diagnosis delay. It is necessary to educate them about BC risk factors, symptoms, and self-breast examination to shorten the delay in diagnosis.

Knowledge and Practice Concerning Breast Cancer Risk Factors and Screening among Females in UAE.

Breast cancer is considered the most dangerous cancer for women, driving the highest number of mortalities in women worldwide. According to the WHO 2020 report, breast cancer showed the highest five-year prevalence in the UAE, among other cancers. This research assessed breast cancer awareness, potential risk factors, screening approaches and practices, barriers to screening, and attitudes toward seeking medical help among UAE women. A cross-sectional community-based study was conducted through a web-based validated questionnaire. Data analysis was carried out using IBM SPSS version 27. The questionnaire was sent through social media platforms. The eligible completed were 616 responses. This study showed a prevalence of breast cancer of 3.1% among the study population. Regarding Breast cancer knowledge, most of the participants, 65.8% had moderate knowledge, 19% had poor knowledge, and only 7.6% had good knowledge. Breast cancer screening methods were the most recognized section at 76%, followed by knowledge of symptoms and while the least known section was the BC risk factors. Twenty-five percent of respondents had at least one breast cancer symptom. About 37.1% of women aged more than 40 years had never undergone mammography. In potential, most participants and 81.7% were having more than five of the BC risk factors had adequate knowledge about breast cancer with relatively higher knowledge scores for screening methods and symptoms. Participants who received information from healthcare providers or attended awareness events had a higher knowledge score. In contrast, insufficient mammography screening had been revealed. At the same time, potential risk evaluation revealed a high percentage of participants suffering from many potential risk factors.

Factors Associated with Diagnostic Delays among Tunisian Breast Cancer Patients.

Breast cancer (BC) remains one of the most common and deadliest cancer among women worldwide and in Tunisia. The lethality of BC is particularly high in developing countries, such as Tunisia, due to late diagnosis in the majority of cases. The objective of this study was to analyze factors associated with delayed presentation among women followed at the Salah Azaiez institute of Tunis during the year 2021. It was a retrospective cohort study, including patients with primary BC, consulting at the Salah Azaeiz institute of Tunis over a period of six months, from january 1st to june, 30th, 2021. The total diagnostic interval (DI) was divided into patient interval (PI) and healthcare system interval (HSI). Diagnosis delay due to patient (PD) was defined as a delay more than three months between the discovery of symptoms and the first medical consultation. Data were collected using a valid questionnaire "the breast cancer questionnaire delay" and from patients' medical records. The calculation of crude and adjusted Odds Ratios using a stepwise descending binary logistic regression model was performed to measure the association of the studied factors with the delayed presentation. A total, 146 patients were included. The mean age of the patients was 50.1 ± 10.9 years. More than a half of patients had a primary education (56.8%). Majority of patients were married (86.3%) and unemployed (90.4%). The median of patient interval (PI) and HSI were 31 days [IQR: 12.5-151.5] and 53 days [IQR: 33.0-88.7] respectively. About three quarter of patients (76.4%) presented a healthcare system delay (HSD). After univariate analysis, factors significantly associated with PD were the low level of education (illiterate/primary) (RR: 2.7; 95% CI [1.1-6.4]; p=0.02) and the lack of knowledge about BC symptoms by patients (RR: 15.0; 95% CI [6.0-37.4]; p<10-3). The only variable that remained associated with PD, after multivariate analysis, was lack of initial knowledge of symptoms (OR: 15.0; 95% CI [6.0-37.4]; p<10-3). Lack of knowledge of symptoms was the main factor associated with delayed presentation among BC women.This study shows the need to inform women about performing breast self-examination as well as clinical signs of BC.

Opportunities and challenges of virtual reality-based interventions for patients with breast cancer: a systematic review

BackgroundBreast cancer is one of the most common cancers diagnosed worldwide and the second leading cause of death among women. Virtual reality (VR) has many opportunities and challenges for breast cancer patients' rehabilitation and symptom management. The purpose of this systematic review is to look into the benefits and drawbacks of VR interventions for breast cancer patients.MethodsA systematic search was conducted on PubMed, Web of Science, Scopus, IEEE, and the Cochrane Library, from inception until February 6, 2022. The inclusion criteria were: (1) original studies without restriction in study design; (2) a study population consisting of patients with breast cancer; (3) any type of VR-based interventions (immersive and non-immersive); and (5) studies published in English. To assess the risk of bias, the Effective Public Health Practice Project (EPHPP) Tool was used.ResultsEighteen articles were included in this systematic review. The result showed that VR could provide many opportunities for patients with breast cancer, including reducing anxiety, time perception, pain, fatigue, chemotherapy-related symptom distress levels, and depression severity, as well as improvement in the range of motion, strength, and function. Cybersickness symptoms, the weight of headsets and helmets, the quality of the visual image, and the cost of the equipment are some of the challenges in using this technology on these patients.ConclusionsThe systematic review showed that VR interventions have opportunities and challenges for patients with breast cancer. VR can be effective for rehabilitation and symptom management and is used in different stages of treatment to improve the condition of patients with breast cancer. However, before using it, the researcher should consider its challenges.

Internet Search Trends on Breast Cancer Between 2017 and 2021 in Brazil: an Infoveillance Investigation

Introduction: Internet users frequently search for information on health issues. The behavior of Internet users may be related to health contexts experienced in their communities, reflecting unmet demands. Objective: To analyze the interest of Internet users on breast cancer in Brazil between 2017 and 2021. Method: An infodemiological study was carried out using the relative search volume (ranging from 0 to 100) for the term “câncer de mama” (breast cancer) in Brazil, retrieved from the Google Trends tool. The annual relative search volume was compared with a non-parametric approach and significance value (p) of 5%. Results: Except between 2019 and 2020 (p-value&gt;0.05), there was a significant increase in Internet searches for the term “câncer de mama” in Brazil (all p-values &lt;0.05). The peak of interest (relative search volume=100) was found in October 2020. Internet users who searched for the term “câncer de mama” often searched for signs and symptoms of breast cancer. Conclusion: The interest of Internet users on breast cancer has increased in recent years in Brazil.

ATFE-Net: Axial Transformer and Feature Enhancement-based CNN for ultrasound breast mass segmentation

Breast mass is one of the main clinical symptoms of breast cancer. Recently, many CNN-based methods for breast mass segmentation have been proposed. However, these methods have difficulties in capturing long-range dependencies, causing poor segmentation of large-scale breast masses. In this paper, we propose an axial Transformer and feature enhancement-based CNN (ATFE-Net) for ultrasound breast mass segmentation. Specially, an axial Transformer (Axial-Trans) module and a Transformer-based feature enhancement (Trans-FE) module are proposed to capture long-range dependencies. Axial-Trans module only calculates self-attention in width and height directions of input feature maps, which reduces the complexity of self-attention significantly from O(n2) to O(n). In addition, Trans-FE module can enhance feature representation by capturing dependencies between different feature layers, since deeper feature layers have richer semantic information and shallower feature layers have more detailed information. The experimental results show that our ATFE-Net achieved better performance than several state-of-the-art methods on two publicly available breast ultrasound datasets, with Dice coefficient of 82.46% for BUSI and 86.78% for UDIAT, respectively.

Assessment Awareness of Breast Cancer Signs, Risk Factors, and Barriers: An Online Cross‑Sectional Study in Syria

Background: According to the World Health Organization (WHO), breast cancer (BC) is women's most common type of cancer. In LAMICs, breast cancer incidence is low. However, a lack of information about the signs and symptoms of breast cancer potentially results in the disease's progression to life-threatening stages.This study aimed to determine the levels of breast cancer symptom awareness among Syrian women and to identify the variables associated with a high level of awareness.&#x0D; &#x0D; Methods: From 3 September 2022 to 27 September 2022, Syrian women participated in an online cross-sectional survey to measure their knowledge about breast cancer, risk factors, and symptoms. This survey was derived from previous research that included a comprehensive, authorized scale. The admission requirement was 18-year-old or older Syrian women from all Syrian governorates. The questionnaire was divided into two portions; the first component included sociodemographic characteristics. Based on the original BCAM scale, the second portion assessed the participant's knowledge of breast cancer symptoms, risk factors, and obstacles. Using the IBM SPSS V. 28.0 software, descriptive and multivariate logistic regression analyses were performed on the data.&#x0D; &#x0D; Results: Among 1305 study participants, the mean age and standard deviation of the individuals were 30.7 and 11.2, respectively. Students constituted almost three-quarters (75.2%) of the study respondents. The average level of knowledge about risk factors was higher among women with chronic diseases (Mean = 4.44, SD = 2.176), whereas jobless people had a higher average level of information regarding obstacles than other subgroups of practical circumstances. In addition, single women scored higher on the barrier comprehension scale than other marital status groups (mean=3.34, SD=2.32). Only two variables, including age and educational level, were statistically significant in predicting an acceptable degree of knowledge of the risk factors for breast cancer. Participants with a PhD were more aware than other educational subgroups (P-value 0.05; OR =6.186). Participants with a PhD. are projected to be 6.18 times more aware of breast cancer risk factors than those with lower levels of education. Women with chronic conditions were 1.84 times more likely than others to be aware of breast cancer barriers. &#x0D; &#x0D; Conclusion: Our findings indicate that Syrian females have a poor to moderate knowledge of breast cancer symptoms, risk factors, and barriers. It is proposed that more breast cancer awareness campaigns be conducted and that yearly screening programs be improved to combat the late detection of this illness. Social media and television might be effective venues for raising awareness of breast self-examination and early identification of symptoms.

Assessment of knowledge, attitude and practices towards preventive aspects of breast cancer in females in Kanpur

Objective: The aim of this study was to assess knowledge regarding risk factors, signs, symptoms of breast cancer and awareness and practices towards screening of breast cancer such as Self Breast Examination, Clinical Breast Examination and mammography. Methods: A prospective study was carried out through preformed questionnaire circulated among females at Kanpur. The questionnaire was formed in simple English language with options like yes or no or multiple choices were given to assess their knowledge, attitude and practice towards breast cancer. A total of 741 subjects participated and answered the questions through google form. Results: Out of 741 subjects majority i,e 496 (66.9%) had moderate knowledge.20.6% had poor knowledge while only 12.4% participants had good knowledge. There was significant relationship between respondents knowledge and educational status (p value

The "Know Your Lemons" Tools: A strategy to improve breast cancer warning signs recognition in Malaysia.

Breast cancer (BC) is the most common cancer in Malaysia, with many diagnosed at late stages. The "Know Your Lemons" (KYL) visual educational tools were developed by KYL Foundation. This study aimed to evaluate participants' confidence levels and perceived knowledge in identifying BC symptoms before and after exposure to KYL tools. A cross-sectional study was carried out among 788 participants in three KYL health campaigns from 2017 to 2020. Perceived knowledge (a 5-item Likert scale was used, zero means "very poor" and 4 means "excellent knowledge") and confidence in identifying BC symptoms were studied. A Wilcoxon Matched-Paired Signed-Rank Test was performed to assess the perceived knowledge. There was a significant improvement in the perceived knowledge Mean (±SD) score (2.84 ± 1.02) versus (4.31 ± 0.66) before and after the campaign (P < 0.01). About 95.6% agreed that the language used in KYL materials was clear and understandable, 89.8% agreed it is acceptable in Malaysian culture, and 80% felt more confident in identifying BC symptoms. Therefore, 90.8% had the intention of breast self-examination and 90.8% would consult a doctor if symptomatic. The majority (92.7%) agreed that the KYL tools clarified the BC tests needed. The KYL tools enhanced perceived BC symptom recognition knowledge and confidence levels.

Screening Programs for Breast Cancer: Toward Individualized, Risk-Adapted Strategies of Early Detection.

Early detection of breast cancer (BC) comprises two approaches: screening of asymptomatic women in a specified target population at risk (usually a target age range for women at average risk), and early diagnosis for women with BC signs and symptoms. Screening for BC is a key health intervention for early detection. While population-based screening programs have been implemented for age-selected women, the pivotal clinical trials have not addressed the global utility nor the improvement of screening performance by utilizing more refined parameters for patient eligibility, such as individualized risk stratification. In addition, with the exception of the subset of women known to carry germline pathogenetic mutations in (high- or moderately-penetrant) cancer predisposition genes, such as BRCA1 and BRCA2, there has been less success in outreach and service provision for the unaffected relatives of women found to carry a high-risk mutation (i.e., "cascade testing") as it is in these individuals for whom such actionable information can result in cancers (and/or cancer deaths) being averted. Moreover, even in the absence of clinical cancer genetics services, as is the case for the immediate and at least near-term in most countries globally, the capacity to stratify the risk of an individual to develop BC has existed for many years, is available for free online at various sites/platforms, and is increasingly being validated for non-Caucasian populations. Ultimately, a precision approach to BC screening is largely missing. In the present chapter, we aim to address the concept of risk-adapted screening of BC, in multiple facets, and understand if there is a value in the implementation of adapted screening strategies in selected women, outside the established screening prescriptions, in the terms of age-range, screening modality and schedules of imaging.

Optimization of breast treatment planning towards lower dose rate: A Monte Carlo simulation study

BackgroundThe inclusive symptom of breast cancer is a new mass or lump. Breast tumors may be a participation of dissimilar types or combination of invasive and in situ cancer. The positron emitting radionuclides may be employed to treat the breast. MethodsThe various configurations of breast may be optimized to decrease the absorbed radiation dose, since the average glandular dose is regularly utilized as a criterion in radiation-risk detection. In this study, two configurations in cubic-rectangular (CR) and cylindrical-conical (CC) sketches along with appropriate assumptions were modelled and simulated via Monte Carlo technique, and the acquired dose rate (DR) values were compared. ResultsThe amounts of scattering and absorption cross sections of radiations next to the DR value reduced as the height of the CR sketch decreases. The mean dose rate value in the CR sketch reduced by 96.83% compared to that in the CC sketch. Additionally, raising the distance from the nipple (or raising the depth) reduced the DR values for both configurations. While the source of positron emitter was close to the right breast, the relative difference of the DR values between two sketches had major influence, for the CR outline which was high at the lower depths, and decreased linearly by increasing the depth. The accumulated DR value reduced severely in the CR sketch rather than the CC one. ConclusionThis study may be helpful to inspect deformed breast tissue in treatment planning.

Combination of Convolutional Neural Network and AdaBoost for Breast Cancer Diagnosis

Breast cancer is a cancer that develops from breast tissue. Early symptoms of breast cancer include the existence of a lump in the breast, a change in breast shape, or dimpling on the skin. This research explores the potential of ensemble learning, with a focus on the AdaBoost algorithm, to enhance the performance of Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN) in image classification tasks, particularly with breast cancer image datasets. The architectures in focus were VGG-16, ResNet50, and Inception V4, three prevalent CNN models with proven efficiency in image recognition tasks. Coupling these CNN models with AdaBoost led to notable performance improvements in individual tests. The study further pushed the envelope by constructing an ensemble model that combined all three CNN models. This ensemble, with AdaBoost, demonstrated impressive performance across various datasets. With precision and recall scores exceeding 0.94, an F1-Score of 0.96, and an overall accuracy of 0.95 to 0.99. The significant performance boost can be attributed to the richer feature space generated by the ensemble of multiple CNN models and the iterative refinement of predictions provided by the AdaBoost algorithm. Despite the ensemble model's complexity and increased computational demand, the results provide a compelling justification for its use. Further research could delve into optimizing such ensemble models, exploring other ensemble strategies, or testing the models on diverse datasets and tasks beyond image classification.

Knowledge, Attitudes and Practice Regarding Breast Cancer among Parakou University Female Students in 2021

Background: Breast cancer is a life-threatening pathology affecting women across the world. Evidence suggests deficiency of knowledge and numerous sociodemographic factors contribute to delayed medical attention seeking behavior whether initial symptoms of breast cancer go undetected. Objective: This study aimed to assess knowledge, attitudes and practices regarding breast cancer among Parakou University female students in 2021. Method: This was a cross-sectional study with descriptive and analytical purposes, carried out on the campus of the University of Parakou, from June 14 to July 2, 2021. Data collection was performed through an individual online questionnaire, designed with KoBoCollect version 1.29.3. Data analysis was implemented with EPI INFO VERSION 7.1.3.3 software. Result: A total of 200 students meeting the inclusion criteria participated in this study. Among them, 20.5% had never heard about breast cancer. Non practice of breast cancer screening (breast self-examination) prevalence was 80%. Factors favoring non practice of breast cancer screening were: ethnicity, religion, not adhering to screening ideas, not committing to educating family and friends about screening. Factors promoting breast cancer screening practice were: having ever heard about breast cancer, being able to point to breast cancer symptoms, having adequate knowledge of breast cancer screening methods, having a good knowledge of the late-stage screening drawbacks. Conclusion: Some young women with high school level are still unaware of breast cancer and do not practice screening. Policymakers should consider more effective information outreach.

Women’s Awareness and Beliefs of Breast Cancer at Al-Baha, Saudi Arabia

Background: Women’s awareness and beliefs about breast cancer in Saudi Arabia were not fully investigated. The aim of this descriptive study was to assess women’s awareness and beliefs toward breast cancer in Al-Baha, Saudi Arabia. Methods: This is a descriptive cross-sectional study; it was conducted among women attending the Women and Child Care Center at Alawi Royal Mall in Alaqiq for mammogram screening of breast cancer. A convenient sampling technique was used; it included women who attended the center in the period from September 2021 to December 2021, and who agreed to participate. The data were collected using a questionnaire consisting of questions on awareness and beliefs toward breast cancer. The data were analyzed using SPSS software. Results: The current study showed that the level of awareness in women was high toward breast cancer general information (42.9%), the meaning of malignancy (54.3%), and ways for detecting breast cancer (42.9%), it was also shown that they had fair awareness on myths related to breast cancer (45.7%), and signs and symptoms of breast cancer (51.4%). The study also showed that the women have a high level of beliefs toward breast cancer health services (48.6%), the ability of breast cancer to be prevalent in some families (45.7%), the ways of breast cancer self-detection (34.3%), and mammogram role in early detection of breast cancer (34.3%). It was found that the occupation of women and women’s level of education significantly improved the awareness in women. It was shown that the occupation of women and their level of education were significantly related to the level of beliefs toward breast cancer (21.4%) compared to 16.7% for women working in the private sectors. Conclusion: Women in Al-Baha have a high level of awareness and beliefs about breast cancer. The occupation of women and women’s level of education are associated with a high level of awareness and beliefs toward breast cancer.

Diagnostic delay in breast cancer diagnosis: the role of health practitioners

Breast cancer is a significant health concern for women in Pakistan, with one in nine women facing a high lifetime risk of being diagnosed with the disease. Accessing timely and appropriate healthcare services for breast cancer patients can be challenging in Pakistan, and understanding the role of different health practitioners is essential to understand the functioning of the informal referral system. Therefore, this study aimed to explore the different aspects of patients' consultations with various health practitioners for diagnosing breast cancer symptoms. Data were collected from 168 breast cancer patients who had consulted local health practitioners before being diagnosed with breast cancer. Descriptive statistics, the Kruskal‒Wallis H test, and post hoc tests were used to analyze the data. The study found that most patients consulted general practitioners (59.52%) and pir (56.55%) for their health-related concerns. Consultants referred most patients to diagnostic centers, while pir and hakim referred no patients. Patients visited pir and general practitioners the most, but the average number of visits to pir and hakim was higher than that to other health practitioners (p &lt; 0.05). Moreover, pir (130 days) and hakim (120 days) had longer treatment periods than other health practitioners, with hakim charging the highest consultation fees [i.e., Pakistani rupees (PKR) 18,000] and patients incurring the highest travel expenses to visit pir (p &lt; 0.05). Our study highlights the challenges faced by breast cancer patients in seeking timely and effective healthcare services. The absence of a formal referral system resulted in prolonged diagnosis times, extensive travel, and financial burdens on the patients. The findings suggest the need to improve general public awareness regarding breast cancer symptoms and establish an active cancer referral system to achieve early diagnosis, timely treatment, and improved quality of life for breast cancer patients, especially those with a lower socioeconomic status.

Sistem Pakar Mendiagnosa Penyakit Kanker Menggunakan Metode Forward Chaining

Cancer is a disease caused by abnormal growth of body tissue cells that turn into cancer cells. One of them is cervical cancer and breast cancer, this cancer often affects women. Some women tend not to know they have the disease. Data on the number of cervical cancer patients is 374 patients per year and the number of breast cancer patients is 281 per year. Knowledge and early monitoring of cervical cancer and breast cancer are needed to assist the community in carrying out early prevention and treatment. To provide a diagnosis, the help of an expert is needed, namely a specialist doctor who deals with the diagnosis and treatment of cancer. Given these conditions, it is necessary to develop a solution by designing a system that can help in overcoming the symptoms of cervical and breast cancer using an expert system for diagnosing cancer which aims to make it easier for doctors and patients to find out the symptoms of cervical cancer. and breast cancer in patients. The results showed that this expert system for diagnosing cervical cancer and breast cancer can be a medium of information, knowledge and a means of detection for cloud people in detecting the initial conditions of cervical cancer and breast cancer independently with the help of technology with this application which is expected to help in providing consultations providing information about the stage, symptoms and solutions

Association between Breast Cancer Knowledge and Mammogram Utilization among Immigrant Muslim Arab Women in California: Cross-Sectional Design.

Regular mammogram screenings have contributed to early breast cancer (BC) diagnoses and lowered the mortality rate by 40% in the United States of America (USA). Nonetheless, ethnic women living in developed countries, such as immigrant Muslim Arab women (IMAW), are less likely to get mammograms. In our study, we aimed to understand health behaviors among IMAWs as understudied populations in the USA. We conducted a cross-sectional study on a convenience sample of IMAW living in southern California. We used logistic regression and multivariate logistic regressions to analyze the data. The total number of participants who completed the survey was 184 IMAW. Participants who had a higher level of knowledge about BC signs and symptoms and mammogram knowledge were more likely to have obtained a mammogram at some point compared with their counterparts (OR = 1.23, p = 0.03, CI: 1.07-1.42; OR = 2.23, p = 0.23, CI: 1.11-4.46, respectively). Our results provide more evidence emphasizing the important influence of BC and mammogram knowledge on immigrant women's behavior regarding mammogram utilization. The average level of knowledge in all three domains (BC risk factors, BC signs and symptoms, and mammogram use) reported in this study is considered low.

Exploring causes of delays in help-seeking behaviours among symptomatic Omani women diagnosed with late-stage breast cancer - A qualitative study.

Breast cancer (BC) is the most commonly diagnosed cancer in Oman; however, the majority of women are diagnosed at a relatively young age and late stage. Delays in BC diagnosis may be attributable to patient-related barriers to medical help-seeking, such as embarrassment arising from breast examinations or negative perceptions of cancer or a cancer diagnosis. Identifying and addressing patients-related barriers to medical help-seeking may help early BC detection, increase the survival rate, and improve prognosis. This study aimed to explore causes of delays in medical help-seeking behaviours among symptomatic Omani women diagnosed with late-stage BC. Purposeful sampling was used to identify Omani women diagnosed with late-stage BC (i.e., stages III or IV) at the two main referral oncology centres in Oman. Semi-structured individual interviews were utilised to collect data regarding the participants' reasons for delaying seeking medical help. The qualitative framework analysis approach was used for data analysis. A total of 17 women participated in the study. The mean age was 41.94±7.87 years (range: 27-56 years). Six reasons for delays in seeking medical help were identified, including: (1) Being in denial of BC symptoms; (2) normalisation of BC symptoms attributed to hormonal changes, dietary changes, or work-induced stress; (3) misinterpretation of BC symptoms attributed to other diseases or expectation of more alarming/obvious BC symptoms; (4) pursuit of alternative medicine remedies; (5) false reassurance or incorrect advice from family members or friends; and (6) practical barriers, such as childcare responsibilities and lack of access to transport. Several reasons were identified for delays in seeking medical help for BC symptoms, including cultural and emotional factors and a lack of knowledge of BC symptoms. Increased awareness of BC symptoms and a better understanding of Omani women's beliefs, cultures, and behaviours may help to reduce delays in BC presentation and diagnosis.

Use a web-app to improve breast cancer risk factors and symptoms knowledge and adherence to healthy diet and physical activity in women without breast cancer diagnosis (Precam project)

PurposeThis study aimed to evaluate the preliminary effectiveness of an educational intervention using a web-app to improve knowledge of breast cancer risk factors and symptoms and adherence to healthy eating and physical activity among women without breast cancer diagnosis in Asturias (Spain).MethodsA pragmatic randomized pilot trial was conducted to evaluate the impact of a web-app-based intervention for women without breast cancer diagnosis. Women in the intervention group participated in a 6-month intervention web-app based on the Behaviour Change Wheel Model. The web-app includes information about breast cancer risk factors, early detection, physical activity and diet.ResultsTwo hundred and eighty-fifth women aged 25–50 were invited to join the study. Two hundred and twenty-four were randomly assigned to either the intervention group (IG = 134) or control group (CG = 90) according to their place of residence. Adherence among women in the IG increased significantly from pre- to post-intervention for eight of the 12 healthy behaviors and for the identification of six risk factors and six symptoms compared to women in the CG and, among whom adherence only increased for two behaviors, the identification of one risk factor and 0 symptoms. The intervention significantly improved the mean number of risk factors + 1.06 (p < 0.001) and symptoms + 1.18 (p < 0.001) identified by women in the IG.ConclusionsThe preliminary results of this study suggest that an educational intervention using a web-app and based on the Behaviour Change Wheel model could be useful to improve knowledge of breast cancer risk factors and symptoms and to improve adherence to a healthy diet and physical activity in women without a previous breast cancer diagnosis.