Medical students' knowledge and attitudes towards breast cancer screening strategies for the transgender population.

179 Background: Transgender patients (TP) are less likely to seek medical attention, including breast cancer screening (BCS) . Approximately half of TP perceive healthcare workers as uneducated, and face intersecting disparities when accessing healthcare. Despite an increased risk of BC while hormonal gender reassignment treatment, only 0.6% adhere to BCS recommendations. Most medical schools do not include transgender health training in their curricula, leading to an inadequacy in preparing professionals to deliver comprehensive high-quality care. Our group previously demonstrated an important gap in knowledge from specialists on BCS in TP (Barragan-Carrillo et. al. ASCO, 2022). We seek to evaluate the state of knowledge of BCS in TP in Medical Students. Methods: We conducted a validated 14-item online survey exploring the knowledge and attitudes of medical students regarding BCS strategies in TP. 6 questions assessed attitudes and 8 knowledge. Participants were invited in July 2022 through social media to complete the survey. Descriptive statistics were employed for data analysis and chi square was used to asses for associations between demographic data with knowledge. Results: 104 participants completed the survey, 75 (72.1%) identified as female, 28 (26.9%) as men, and 1 (1%) as transgender. 17 (16.3%) self-identified as a sexual minority. Median age was 22 (range 18-30) years. 69 (66.3%) were enrolled in private institutions, and 35 (33.7%) in public. Most (65%) were 4 th -7 th year, and 36 (35%) 1 st -3 rd year students. 32 (30.7%) expressed confidence in their knowledge to address BCS needs for TP. 15% considered medical schools provide good understanding of transgender health needs,86%) believe understanding these needs should be mandatory in in the medical school curricula, and 103 (99.0%) stated they would benefit from more training the subject. Regarding knowledge evaluation, the average score was 46.7% (SD 19.3), with only 11.5% identifying the correct age to start BCS and only 22% the correct interval for it. Only 9 students (8.6%) had a score higher than 75%, and 0 participants got a score of 100%. On chi-square testing we did not find any associations between demographics and knowledge. Conclusions: Most medical students believe they lack capacity to address transgender health issues and would benefit from additional education and training. Our findings support that the current medical school curricular do not support sufficient training on this subject, and bolster the need for a more inclusive curricula. The described deficiencies in future physicians’ knowledge emphasize the importance of incorporating these topics into academia.