Key considerations for cancer screening in immigrants for which there are US Preventive Services Task Force guidelines

Breast cancer	Immigrant women in the United States undergo mammography at lower rates than US-born women despite breast cancer being the leading cause of cancer death in most low- and middle-income countries. Clinicians and health systems should spend extra time and effort to tailor education to immigrant and refugee women to address this inequity.
Colon cancer	Colonoscopy is the least completed cancer screening test among immigrant groups. Colon cancer screening rates vary dramatically between immigrant groups underlying the need for targeted approaches to improve colonoscopy uptake.
Cervical cancer	It is especially important to perform Pap screening on older refugee and immigrant women because those aged over 65 years who have never been screened with Pap smears have the highest mortality from cervical cancer and benefit most from screening. The common practice in the United States of ceasing Pap screening at age 65 years does not apply to the vast majority of refugee and immigrant women because they do not have a history of negative prior screening. Women over 65 years who have never been screened should have 10 years of negative cervical cancer screening before cessation of screening. Current guidelines recommend screening initiation at age 21 years regardless of age of sexual debut (ie, first intercourse). However, Pap screening before sexual debut in young women with infibulation (ie, type III female genital cutting [FGC]) may not be anatomically feasible. Screening in women who have undergone FGC and have experienced their sexual debut should not differ from women without FGC history.
Lung cancer	Obtain careful tobacco use history from immigrant patients, recognizing the wide variation and often very high rates of smoking in some groups. Recognize that some refugees and immigrants who have never smoked may have higher risk for lung cancer given high rates of air pollution, exposure to indoor biomass smoke, radon, arsenic and asbestos.

US: United States.

From: Walker PF, Settgast A, DeSilva MB. Cancer Screening in Refugees and Immigrants: A Global Perspective. Am J Trop Med Hyg 2022; 106:1593. Copyright © 2022 The American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene. Available at: https://www.ajtmh.org/view/journals/tpmd/106/6/article-p1593.xml (Accessed June 6, 2023). Reproduced under the terms of the CreativeCommons Attribution License 4.0.

Graphic 141643 Version 1.0

خرید پکیج

Key considerations for cancer screening in immigrants for which there are US Preventive Services Task Force guidelines