UICC World Cancer Congress 2006

Objective: Breast cancer (BC) is a serious women's health problem in Thailand. The Thai Ministry of Public health has promoted the Breast self examination campaign in order to increase the proportion of women aged 35 and older to practice breast self-examination (BSE) once per 3 months for the early protection. However several studies revealed that the breast self-examination (BSE) practices among Thai women is below desirable levels. It is believed that lack of knowledge and awareness regarding cancer-screening practices as well as personal beliefs may be key factors contributing toward the low rate of breast self-examination (BSE). The purposes of this study are to explore knowledge and awareness of Breast Self –Examinaton among Buddhist and Muslim women and to identify barriers to perform breast self-examination (BSE) among Thai women.

Methods: In depth interview and focus group discussion among Thai women with different religious background, Buddhist and Muslim, will be conducted in order to gain better understanding of this issue. Thematic analysis will be used for data analysis.

Results: On the process of data collect. It will be finished in Feburary 2006. It is anticipated that the results would be of benefit to develop breast cancer screening promotion program for Thai women in order to reduce the patient delay in women with advanced breast cancer in Thailand.