Extending Cancer Navigation to Underserved Suburban Women

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This application will allow for a continued dynamic and unique partnership between the Access DuPage project, an award-winning/nationally renowned model of community-based safety net provision for health care to the medically underserved in a suburban area and the Chicago Cancer Navigation Project (CCNP), a $3.2 million funded site for the national U01 NCI, Patient Navigation Research Program. The CCNP is currently studying specific ways to build and improve safety nets for low income men and women in Chicago, with an established team of health services researchers in public health policy, women's health and oncology, and with Northwestern University's Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center (the only National Cancer Institute designated comprehensive cancer center in Illinois). The main goal of this partnership is to reduce health disparities among low income women in DuPage County with regards to breast and cervical disease and cancer. With the current efflux of the urban poor and new immigrants into the suburbs, our focus on a suburban County currently facing these healthcare issues provides a critical new approach to community- based safety net research. This application proposes an integrated partnership and plan to build a women's cancer navigation intervention in DuPage County. This intervention aims to navigate approximately 600 women with abnormal cervical or breast cancer screening tests through a diagnostic resolution. Our intervention is based on community empowerment, self-help, and collaboration in order to establish a long-term plan to forge a strong safety net with patient navigation as one of the linking bridges. The proposed intervention can be a model for other suburban areas confronting the same issues.