A lot can change in the wake of a cancer diagnosis, especially for a daughter.
“When a person gets sick, the whole family gets sick, especially in the Hispanic and Latino community … It is really a family effort when it comes to going through cancer treatment and a cancer diagnosis,” Britney Ortiz said.
Being a research assistant in the Avanzando Caminos Hispanic/Latino Cancer Survivorship study at UT Health San Antonio, Britney Ortiz thought she knew a lot about cancer.
But her father’s unexpected cancer diagnosis gave her a true understanding of the disease.
In a short period of time, Britney went from interviewing survivors about their cancer journey to being a caregiver for a loved one.
A Shocking Cancer Diagnosis
Britney said her father’s cancer diagnosis shocked her entire family.
In October 2023, her father experienced a medical emergency with his gallbladder, which required urgent attention.
As part of his care, her father received a colonoscopy, which revealed his startling colorectal carcinoma diagnosis.
While Britney remained shocked by the finding, it seemed similar to a lot of her patient’s’ experiences with the disease.
“In [my] community, especially around [men], it is very common for them not to seek medical attention until they are in a medical emergency,” Britney explained. “They don’t seek medical attention because they just don’t want to, especially in [men], they can never feel hurt, they can never be sick, because they are seen as a stronger person in the family, as the head of the household.”
A delay in care can often lead to a late-stage diagnosis, often resulting in worse health outcomes, including death.
This is also one of the reasons that cancer is the second-leading cause of death in Latinos and all people, with heart disease and cancer making up 17% of Latino deaths in the US, according to the American Cancer Society’s recent report on cancer.
Compared to all men, Latino men tend to have higher rates of certain types of cancers, such as prostate, colorectal, and kidney.
Knowing this, her father’s stage 3 cancer diagnosis seemed to align with what she knew to be true about the disease and its impact, but it didn’t make the diagnosis any easier.
Becoming a Caregiver
Her father underwent a hemicolectomy to remove part of his colon, but due to his late-stage diagnosis and age he had to receive a more aggressive treatment in the form of chemotherapy treatment and for a longer time.
The diagnosis forced Britney to temporarily leave her role as a research assistant for a time and then work from home so she could assume the position of full-time caregiver for her father.
Being a cancer research assistant allowed Britney to help her father fully understand his diagnosis — an opportunity few in his position receive.
Not only was she able to help him break down the medical jargon, but she was also able to help him navigate the diagnosis with a language hurdle.
“He’s lived here for quite some time, but he has not learned English well enough to be able to [speak up] for himself,” Britney recalled. “Not only was it thrown at him in another language, but it was also just a complexity that he didn’t understand.”
Britney was there with him through all his visits, telling him step-by-step what was going to happen and what they were going to do.
“When you tell him ‘the chemotherapy,’ he doesn’t understand what that’s going to entail. When they tell him follow up visits, he doesn’t understand. It was so difficult for him that his first visit with the oncologist, he didn’t even remember that he had cancer, and that’s how severe he was,” Britney explained.
Given his late-stage diagnosis, Britney also had to be a support system for her father’s declining health while helping him deal with the adverse health effects of the treatment.
“After each therapy session, he was extremely tired and fatigued. Being able to drive him to his appointments and being able to pick him up from his appointments and just being there with him as a supportive person was really helpful,” Britney said.
Apart from her father’s treatment, the family was also going through another cancer diagnosis.
Around the same time as Britney’s father’s diagnosis, her brother was undergoing treatment for neuroendocrine cancer of the colon. Going through two family cancer diagnoses at once meant Britney had a lot on her shoulders, providing support to the rest of her family, including her mother.
Unfortunately, her brother’s medical intervention was less successful than her father’s and he lost his battle with the disease.
While her father survived, both experiences altered her perception of cancer in her community and changed her understanding of the challenges they face getting care.
Importance of Cancer Screenings
One of those challenges is access to life-saving cancer screenings.
Several cancer screenings exist for breast, cervical, and other cancers. What’s more, the HPV vaccine can help reduce the risk for cervical cancer.
However, non-medical drivers of health such as lack of insurance, language hurdles, and background differences can influence someone’s access to preventative care.
When the non-medical drivers of health deter someone from getting vaccines or cancer screenings, it can lead to later stage diagnoses and higher risk for death.
For example, even though mammograms can reduce the number of breast cancer deaths by 22%, only about 3 in 4 women between ages 50 and 74 received a mammogram in the past two years, as of 2022, according to a new study by the CDC.
Prostate and colorectal cancers are both treatable cancers when caught early through routine cancer screenings.
For many years, colon cancer was typically screened for by undergoing a colonoscopy.
But advancements in science have made testing more accessible and less invasive.
Several medical companies have created home testing kits, making the disease as easy to screen for as COVID-19 and pregnancy.
While the tests aren’t 100% accurate and a positive test can be an indicator of other gastrointestinal disorders, such as hemorrhoids and irritable bowel syndrome, their existence is an important step in standardizing screening practices and saving lives.
From there, patients can bring a positive test to a physician and get a colonoscopy to confirm the diagnosis.
Addressing Hurdles to Cancer Care with Avanzando Caminos
Britney’s father’s diagnosis has made her more aware of the challenges and long-term hardships that survivors and their families face after cancer.
“I am able to really understand and capture their stories in a way that I feel is different than somebody else, because I have a deeper understanding, and it has really tightened my bonds with these participants,” she said. “I can understand their difficulties as I also went through them, and some of them have gone through even more difficulties because they don’t have [someone to speak up for them], or they don’t have our family support.”
As a research assistant for the Avanzando Caminos study, Britney is responsible for asking Hispanic/Latino study participants in South Texas about their unique cancer journey and some of the non-medical drivers of health they may have faced so they can take that data and find ways to address it.
“The end goal is to be able to provide those better services for them,” Britney stated.
Britney’s personal experience has also given her a different outlook on the cancer journey and a newfound respect for what it means to be a survivor, emphasizing the importance of her work.
Since returning to work, Britney has been working with many colorectal carcinoma patients.
“Whenever you work in a study, it is very personal and it is very important, but once you live it, it completely alters the way that you see things,” Britney said. “Even now, I am constantly looking at what patients tell me when it comes to inter colorectal carcinomas, because I’m trying to look out for my dad, and really learn from what they tell me and their experiences.”
Upon the completion of his treatment, Britney approached her father about contributing to the study, but he declined, citing a common challenge many people struggle with.
“He’s a very private person and wasn’t comfortable talking about his illness,” she recalled. “There’s a deep sense of pride or privacy in many of our communities, especially among older generations, that makes it hard for people to open up — even when it could help others.”
Still, Britney continues to encourage those around her who may be hesitant to participate in research or clinical trials, emphasizing that their stories matter.
“Being able to let them know that we are only going to be able to help them if they help themselves by participating in the study where we can learn from their experience,” she explained.
“That’s really the only way that we are going to be able to help them and to think about their children, because not only are they going through that, but it increases their risk once they have it in the family … The only way that we’re able to provide those services for them is if they want to make a change in the future.”
The experience also reinforced her passion for cancer research, especially colon cancer research, leading her to pursue a clinician role.
In 2024 Britney submitted an application to get her Master’s of Science in Nursing at the University of Texas at Austin in hopes of one day becoming an oncology nurse practitioner, helping those like her father.
She was admitted with plans to start her education in June 2025.
Share Your Cancer Journey with Avanzando Caminos
Based out of UT Health San Antonio’s Institute for Health Promotion Research, the Avanzando Caminos study is looking to recruit and enroll 1,500 Latino cancer survivors in South Texas to help unpack the social, cultural, behavioral, mental, biological, and medical influences on post-cancer life.
The study is open to cancer survivors ages 18 and older.
They must have also completed their primary cancer treatment for breast, colon, kidney, liver, lung, prostate, stomach or cervical cancer within the last 10 years.
The study is comprised of seven study visits over five years, each with assessment interviews, and some with blood draws. Volunteers are also eligible to earn $50 per visit!
Those interested in participating in the study can contact a member of the study team at the Institute for Health Promotion Research at UT Health San Antonio at 210-562-6514 or caminos@uthscsa.edu.
Alternatively, you can visit the Avanzando Caminos website in (English) or (Spanish).
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