Women living in a specific area of the city of St. Louis and North St. Louis County are being diagnosed with late stage breast cancer at twice the rate of women living in the rest of Missouri.

Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine looked for clusters all across Missouri. They never thought they''d find what they were looking for right in their own back yard.

Laverne Holliday never thought she''d be diagnosed with late-stage breast cancer.

For ten years, Holliday was the host of "Jazz in the AM" on National Public Radio. Her picture and name were in the paper. She won awards and make public appearances. It was a labor of love for Holliday, and but she didn''t get rich doing it.

"I didn''t have any insurance. I didn''t have any benefits and at that time in my life I knew that I should be getting check ups but I was embarrassed to go to a clinic," she said.

In June, she went see a doctor for a recurring lump in her neck.

"I said, ''Are you sure this lump on my neck is not related to this lump on my breast?'' And the doctor did a breast exam and boy, did the doctor scare me," Holliday recounted.

He told her to get a mammogram. She should have been getting them for years.

"I am ashamed to say this was my first mammogram," she said.

But because she was a patient at Connect Care she had to wait six anxiety filled weeks for the breast x-ray and and another six stressful weeks for a biopsy. Her diagnosis: late stage breast cancer that had spread to her lymph nodes.

"Those were some really, really dark days because I kept thinking if only I had insurance or if only I had money, I could just circumvent all this and go to a private physician and speed things up," she remembered.

"Women who are diagnosed with late stage breast cancer typically have much lower survival, five year survival, than women who are diagnosed with early stage breast cancer," explained Dr. Mario Schootman, Associate Director for Cancer Prevention and Control at the Siteman Cancer Center.

Holliday''s story is not an isolated incident. Dr. Schootman found women in this red zone that covers half of the city of St. Louis and a portion of North County have double the rate of advanced breast cancer than women outside the zone. That''s cancer where the tumor had already spread to lymph nodes or other organs. The reasons include level of income, lack of health insurance, transportation, even cultural influences that keep people from medical care. He ruled out other usual culprits.

"There are no environmental reasons other than potentially access to care. There are no contaminants or pollutants or any of those kinds of things in the air that would cause this cluster of late stage breast cancer to occur," said Dr. Schootman.

Holliday lives in the red zone.

"Let''s face it. I was indigent and uninsured and I''m really happy those type of facilities are available but I think that more should be done to accommodate women who have large lumps in their breast," she said.

So do other local healthcare agencies including the Siteman Cancer Center. The "Program for the Elimination of Cancer Disparities" was funded six months ago. It''s work includes sending the mobile mammography van into the red zone, and shortening waits for care like the kind Holliday endured. There''s also funding for cancer care once it''s diagnosed.

Holliday is now getting chemotherapy treatment. She''ll have surgery early next year to remove the lump and radiation treatment after that, all funded by programs for low-income, uninsured women. But it took a late-stage cancer diagnosis to make this care available. She wished she had known about mammography programs for the low-income years ago.

"Initially I was going to keep this a big secret but I think it''s very important that people know about this and it''s very important that people who don''t have insurance find out about these programs that are available," said Holliday.

Dr. Schootman is now working on follow-up studies closely examining the barriers women in north city and county face when it comes to getting mammograms.