One in every eight women will develop breast cancer in her lifetime. For every Utah woman, that translates to about a 12.5% chance of developing cancer. 

“Every family, every community, every church group, every book club – all of them will be impacted. Prevention is the best medicine," said CEO and co-founder of The Boob Bus Rena Vanzo. 

The Boob Bus is a mobile healthcare unit that offers mammograms, healthcare screening, breast cancer assessment and other healthcare services to women in local communities. The main goal of The Boob Bus is to make mammograms more accessible and comfortable for women.

“Utah women are just not doing their mammograms. We’re way below the national average,” said Vanzo. In 2022, Utah was ranked 48th out of the 50 states in the nation for mammogram screening. 

“I want them to get comfortable with it. It’s not something you should be ashamed of. Every woman has boobs,” The Boob Bus Founder Rena Vanzo said.

Vanzo and her team have been working to change that statistic by transforming typical healthcare screenings into modern experiences. The Boob Bus was fully customized as a healthcare space with neon pink lights and vaulted ceilings.  

“Not to knock on hospital staff, but sometimes a facility can make you feel like a herd of cattle just going through the line and checking off boxes. On The Boob Bus, you can expect to feel like an individual,” said Driver & Patient Care Coordinator Kayla Bair. “Your history, your experiences and your fears are heard.”

An average visit to The Boob Bus begins by checking-in to answer a handful of medical history questions. The data collected related to menstrual changes, hormones, breast density and personal medical history is used to calculate individual cancer risk. 

“Breast cancer is hormonally driven so we have to ask those questions," Vanzo said. 

“Breast density is really becoming more of a topic of conversation,” Vanzo said. “And it should be. Women with dense breasts do have a higher risk of breast cancer.” 

Patients are offered custom heated pink robes instead of hospital gowns during their appointment. Individual women will meet with a licensed certified technologist privately in the mammogram suite for a screening (where the technologist talks her through the screening of the mammogram instrumentation plates coming together to compress breast tissue for four pictures to be taken - all lasting about two to three minutes). 

“On The Boob Bus, we offer saliva genetic testing kits,” Vanzo said. “I really brought the genetic side because breast cancer can run in families.”

“It has been really powerful and helpful for us to really understand the patient experience. Afterall, 100 percent of our clientele are females,” Vanzo said. 

After a screening, results will be available within one week. (Vanzo emphasizes that patients may be referred to a hospital for diagnostic screening depending on risk.) Each woman leaves The Boob Bus with branded chapstick, nail files and educational cards. Vanzo hopes the vibes will encourage friends, female coworkers, sisters or family members to swap in their brunch reservations or nail appointments with mammogram dates. 

The Boob Bus provides heated robes for mammogram appointments so it “feels more like a spa experience where women can feel empowered rather than putting on this scratchy hospital paper that’s easy to rip,” The Boob Bus Founder Rena Vanzo said.

“It's time to stop talking about healthcare for women like it's getting ready to enter a haunted house,” said Bair. 

The entirely female Boob Bus team emphasizes the importance of destigmatizing women’s health with less shame and embarrassment through more conversation.   

“Women have been conditioned to fear medicine and it needs to stop: the shame women feel by society if they need surgeries to save their life but leave a lifelong scar (mastectomy is a prime example),” said Bair. 

“I want to live in a world where even the men are saying to their partners ‘Hey, did you get your mammogram yet?’” said Vanzo. 

Vanzo and her co-founders started The Boob Bus in late 2022 after being personally impacted by each of their individual family members battling cancer diagnoses. She left a career working in genetic testing labs (pediatrics focused) to attend the Master’s in Business Administration program at the University of Utah. It took her two years to get The Boob Bus fully operational. 

 “I want to live in a world where even the men are saying to their partners ‘Hey, did you get your mammogram yet?’” said Vanzo. 

Vanzo and her co-founders started The Boob Bus in late 2022 after being personally impacted by each of their individual family members battling cancer diagnoses. She left a career working in genetic testing labs (pediatrics focused) to attend the Master’s in Business Administration program at the University of Utah. It took her two years to get The Boob Bus fully operational. 

“I had to learn all of these extra things that are very useful in your life but you wouldn’t think they’d intersect in business,” Vanzo said. 

Vanzo needed to get a CDL so she could drive the oversized custom bus. In preparation, she worked for UTA for 6 months to get trained as a driver in a structured environment. 

The Boob Bus has to get a Department of Transportation ID and is inspected daily. “Are the tires where they need to be? Are all the lights working? Does the horn work? Do the brakes work? How am I on mileage? Do we have enough gas to get where we are going?”

“...women have thanked us over and over because we came to her workplace, made it simple, and she didn’t have her work or life schedule affected,” said Driver & Patient Care Coordinator Kayla Bair.

“Rena is a superstar. I have never met anyone so driven to help others,” said Office & Billing Manager Jen Bartunek.

The Boob Bus primarily meets women for their mammograms all across Salt Lake, Utah and Davis Counties. Through their partnership with the Central Utah Health Department, The Boob Bus also travels to Central Utah. (Out of state travel occurs on occasion with adequate preparation.) 

The Boob Bus works with the Utah Breast & Cervical Cancer Program (UCCP) so uninsured women can still access their mammogram screenings through a voucher program. 

El Programa de Detección del Cáncer de Mama y de Cuello Uterino es facilitado por el Departamento de Salud y Servicios Humanos de Utah y está financiado con fondos estatales y federales. El formulario de solicitud está disponible en español a través de lo siguiente: www.cancer.utah.gov

Individual women can book appointments online (even same-day) through The Boob Bus website: www.theboobbus.com.

Organizations, businesses or school districts can email or call The Boob Bus team (866-747-BOOB) to set up a day for group appointments. 

“We are very lucky that something as critical as breast cancer is preventable and treatable whenever it is detected and screened early,” Vanzo said.