Beneficial effects of a combined navigator/promotora approach for Hispanic women diagnosed with breast abnormalities.

Background: Patient navigation (PN) is an emerging strategy to overcome barriers to cancer care. We evaluated the efficacy of PN in improving time of key events in cancer care, including positive screening tests, definitive diagnosis, initiation of therapy, and completion of initial therapy.

Methods: We evaluated PN in a prospective observational study of predominantly poor Hispanic women with an abnormal breast cancer screening or untreated biopsy proven breast cancer (control = 200, intervention = 260).