Development, Implementation, and Evaluation of the eXamining Relevance of Articles to Young Survivors (XRAYS) Program to Summarize Recent Research Findings for Young Breast Cancer Survivors: Findings from the First Year

To make informed decisions related to their health and health care, pre-menopausal women diagnosed with breast cancer have unique needs for information about treatment, prevention, and reproductive, social and emotional health. Information available through the Internet and mainstream media has important gaps in addressing the needs of young women diagnosed with breast cancer.  To address these needs, Facing Our Risk of Cancer Empowered (FORCE) convened a team of researchers, advocates, care providers, media experts, and consumers, supported by a 5-year grant from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), to implement the eXamining Relevance of Articles to Young Survivors (XRAYS) program, which will provide brief, understandable summaries regarding the relevance and quality of research related to breast cancer risk, prevention, and treatment. FORCE researchers are developing a scoring and reporting system for the evidence quality and relevance of media reports on emerging research. FORCE is working with a diverse network of partners to develop culturally appropriate messaging.  An independent evaluator is conducting process and outcomes evaluations to document program implementation and planning, lessons learned, as well as effectiveness in reaching target audiences, and increases in knowledge among these audiences.  Preliminary results show XRAYS is responding to community needs and ensuring accuracy in reporting. The presentation will summarize barriers and facilitators to program implementation, the process of developing the scoring and summarizing system, the process of planning a communications strategy, and results of a pilot test of XRAYS summaries of the relevance and quality of research.