LAUSR

Background: Poverty, poor healthcare infrastructure and geographic location contribute to a total lack of cancer screening for most residents of rural Honduras. Three projects built upon each other to develop, with local leaders, multiorgan screening events that mitigated barriers to screening-based early detection of cancers. Targeted barriers included transportation, cost, community perception and convenience. Aim: To test a novel system of multiorgan screening for feasibility, acceptability and effectiveness. Methods: Leveraging well-known brigade-style medical outreach methods, two large-scale weekend programs for women and one for men over four years in the same rural location screened women for cancers of the cervix, breast, oral cavity, thyroid; and men for cancers of the testes, oral cavity, skin, prostate and colon; and connected participants with follow-up care at a Honduran cancer center. Screening methods ranged from simple throat palpation for thyroid lesions to molecular screening for high r...