Providence Everett is hosting a free cancer screening and resource event for community members to learn about cancer prevention, schedule a screening mammogram, get checked for skin cancer and receive resources and information from community partner organizations.

The event will take place Saturday, July 27 from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on the first floor of the Pavilion for Women and Children at 900 Pacific Ave. in Everett. The event is open to the public and walk-ins are available. Attendees will be seen on a first-come, first-served basis and do not need to be an existing Providence patient. While preregistration is recommended, an appointment is not required.

Skin cancer exams

There is no charge for skin cancer screenings, so insurance is not needed. To schedule a skin cancer screening in advance, call 425-297-6851.

Breast exams

For breast screenings, people should bring their current health insurance cards. To see if you qualify for a breast screening voucher, call 425-259-9899, ext. 112 and say, “Cancer Screening Event.” Preregistration is available for people would like to schedule their breast screening in advance. If people want to see if their insurance will cover breast cancer screenings, preregistration is recommended to save time day of the event. To schedule a mammogram in advance, call 425-258-7900, option 1. Eligibility requirements include being 40 years of age or older; not having had a mammogram, breast biopsy or breast surgery in the past year; not having had breast cancer in the past two years; and no current diagnosis of breast problems or concerns

Everett-based Providence Comprehensive Breast Center is the first program in Providence’s seven-state health system to launch a free, personalized cancer screening and early detection system. Called Prevention4Me, the survey-based assessment has already proven integral to proactive early cancer detection, as well as determining eligibility for enhanced breast cancer screening and/or genetic testing.

To develop the tool, Providence partnered with a division of the health system called Providence Genomics. It is free and offered to anyone – both women and men between ages 25 and 80 – when they make a mammogram appointment with Providence Comprehensive Breast Center.

After scheduling a mammogram, patients are offered an opportunity to complete the Prevention4Me assessment via email prior to their mammogram appointment. After finishing the assessment, which asks questions about personal and family health history and takes less than 10 minutes, patients instantly receive a personalized cancer risk assessment and details summarizing next steps, including the opportunity to receive saliva-based genetic testing if eligible, which is covered by most health insurance plans. Patients then go to their mammogram appointments as scheduled

Prevention4ME uses assessment responses to calculate a Tyrer-Cuzick (TC) score, an estimate of someone’s lifetime risk for developing breast cancer. It also assesses eligibility for genetic testing according to the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) Guidelines to identify possible inherited risk of breast and other cancers. Once an assessment is complete, patients receive a personalized risk assessment, outlining steps they and their health care team can use to create a customized care plan.

To help ensure that Providence Comprehensive Breast Center was able to provide the full scope of services needed to support a launch of Prevention4Me, the program accepted generous offers of financial support from two sources – Pink Ribbon Row and the Providence General Foundation – to purchase the contrast-enhanced mammography technology as an additional tool to improve cancer detection, especially in dense breast tissue. “The $116,000 these two organizations raised and donated for contrast-enhanced mammography was critical to allowing us to round out our comprehensive suite of breast imaging tools to enhance patient care,” said Brandon Y. Liu, M.D., medical director of Providence Comprehensive Breast Center.

Later this year, the health system plans to broaden access to Prevention4Me by offering the screening tool to mammography patients at Providence Medical Group clinics in Mill Creek and Monroe, as well as launching it at Kadlec Regional Medical Center in Richland, Wash.

For more information, visit prevention4me.providence.org.