Validated tools to assess the population’s cancer-related knowledge are scarce in Brazil. Cancer Awareness Measure (CAM) is a validated tool developed by Cancer Research UK. We aimed to translate, culturally adapt, and validate the Breast Module of the CAM questionnaire to be used in Brazil to access literacy in breast cancer.

Three independent volunteers conducted the instrument’s translation. The translated version was revised by twelve healthcare professionals who made nearly thirty edits to improve understanding of the translated version. Then, the questionnaire was pilot-tested with thirty individuals, who rated the degree of question comprehension on a scale from 0 to 5. Content validity was assessed by five oncology specialists. The final version was administered to one hundred patients, and internal consistency was calculated by Cronbach's Alpha.

Women in the pilot test had an average comprehension of 4.88 (± 0.1). Thus, no modifications were made to the piloted questionnaire. Content validity showed a final clarity score of 0.93 and relevance score of 0.94. Among the one hundred patients, responses to the questionnaire indicated low literacy about breast cancer, and Cronbach's Alpha was 0.77.

It was possible to obtain a validated instrument for surveying and monitoring the literacy of the Brazilian population regarding breast cancer. The instrument was named QuIC-Mama. This and similar tools for increasing awareness could be used in other low- and middle-income countries based on tool development in high-income countries after testing, validation, and cultural adaptation.