Taboos lead to extra cancer risk for Latinas

“By the time Victelia Guillen walked into a clinic last summer, the pain that began a year earlier flared through her body. Within days, she had grim news. Doctors at the Caridad Clinic, a facility west of Boynton Beach, Fla., that serves low-income Hispanics, diagnosed Guillen, 52, with advanced cervical cancer.

Uninsured and wary of doctors, the Guatemalan mother of 10 had never before had a Pap smear - a screening test that has dramatically reduced cervical cancer rates in the United States over the past 50 years. Today, cervical cancer is highly curable if detected early. But women such as Guillen, who hesitate to seek help, represent a difficult challenge for doctors combating a disease that affects Hispanics disproportionately and remains a leading cause of death among women in poor countries.”

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