Bayer is backing a push to improve access to breast cancer screening in rural and underserved areas, working with UPMC Magee-Womens Hospital and Pennsylvania state Sen. Kim Ward to bus women for 3D mammograms.
The German company, which sells injection systems for contrast-enhanced-mammography, helped support a bus to take women from a food bank outside Pittsburgh to a UPMC Magee site on Tuesday morning. A second bus was scheduled to take women from a rural food bank to another UPMC Magee location on Wednesday. All patients will receive a 3D mammogram.
The project reflects evidence of rural-urban breast health disparity in the U.S. One study showed that, on average, breast cancer is diagnosed later in women living in rural areas than in their counterparts in small or large urban areas. Another analysis found age-adjusted mortality rates for breast cancer improved more slowly in rural parts of the U.S. than large metropolitan centers from 1999 to 2020.
Bayer is supporting the project as part of the “Take Care, Now” campaign it is running in partnership with country singer Luke Bryan and retail company Kroger. The screening push is timed to coincide with the imminent start of Breast Cancer Awareness Month and the arrival of the Luke Bryan Farm Tour in Smithton, Pennsylvania, on Sept. 28.
The focus of Take Care, Now extends well beyond breast cancer, with Bayer providing meals as part of the campaign’s broader push to improve health and nutrition in U.S. farm and rural communities. Bayer began working with Bryan in 2015.
Work to improve access to breast cancer screening will continue after Bryan’s tour leaves town. Bayer is planning to work with UPMC Magee to put on events with a mobile 3D mammography screening van to provide better access to rural communities.