Integrating a Navigator Model to Expand Early Supportive Care for Latina and Black Women with Advanced Breast Cancer

The ACCESS (Addressing Cancer Care Equity through Supportive Services) initiative is a community-based, navigator-led intervention designed to connect Black and Latina women with metastatic breast cancer (MBC) to early supportive palliative care. Black and Latina patients with MBC experience a disproportionate burden of pain, psychological distress, and unmet supportive care needs, while access to early palliative care remains inequitable (Mazor et al., 2025).

ACCESS was developed through a five-year National Cancer Institute (NCI)-funded research program grounded in community partnership and co-design. Researchers conducted approximately 50 interviews with patients, caregivers, navigators, nurses, and physicians, while a Community Advisory Board of cancer survivors and community navigators helped guide the intervention’s development. The program is currently concluding a pilot randomized controlled trial evaluating its feasibility, acceptability, and preliminary impact on cancer-related distress and symptom burden.