Dr. Milcah Larks is all too familiar with the cost of delaying preventative cancer screenings for women.
As an oncologist in the Immunology Clinic at Ventura County Medical Center, a hospital in Ventura focused on underserved populations, she prescribes treatment for patients with breast and cervical cancer. Often, patients come to her at late stages of the disease, requiring drastic interventions such as surgery, radiation and chemotherapy. These are treatments that could have been avoided, or at least made more effective, if the patients had been diagnosed sooner through routine mammograms and Pap smears.
“It’s frustrating,” said Dr. Larks, as she relaxed recently in the hospital’s cafeteria after a long workday. “I’m saddened when I have to tell a young person with young children that they may not be there to see their grandkids, to see their kids graduate form high school.” http://www.healthycal.org/archives/16615
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