Evaluating Scaleup of an Adapted Breast Cancer Early Diagnosis Program in Rwanda

Breast cancer incidence is increasing in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) and breast cancer mortality is high in these regions largely due to late stage diagnoses. This is true in the low-income East African country of Rwanda, where there are no national protocols in place to guide evaluation and referral of breast symptoms at primary health facilities. This study will use quantitative and qualitative methods to examine implementation of the Women's Cancer Early Detection Program (WCEDP) in order to understand optimal strategies to scale and sustain breast cancer early diagnosis in Rwanda and other limited-resource settings. The WCEDP is an adaptation of a prior intervention in Burera District, which focused on building community awareness of breast symptoms, improving clinicians' clinical breast assessment (CBA) skills, and implementing weekly breast clinics at the primary health care center and hospital levels. The Burera intervention was associated with improvements in health care workers' knowledge and skills, increases in care-seeking and receipt of care by women with breast symptoms, and an increase in early-stage breast cancer diagnoses.