Reply
Sun 21 Nov, 2004 01:05 pm
In the recent past there have been tremendous improvements in finding, treating and curing breast cancer. Now a study by the National Cancer institute indicates that regular mammograms allow doctors to treat early stage breast cancer more effectively, rather than waiting until the disease became more entrenched in the body.
The study also indicated that more precise tests needed to be developed. A number of women who presented with late stage breast cancer had negative mammograms 1-3 years before presenting with widely disseminated disease.
Quote:Study results indicated that not having had a screening mammogram for one to three years prior to diagnosis was associated with 52 percent of late-stage breast cancer cases. The authors state that to improve breast cancer outcomes, priority should be placed on reaching unscreened women and encouraging them to have mammograms - especially older, unmarried, less educated, and/or low income women, whom they found were less likely to have been screened.
Quote:A key finding was that women who had not been screened one to three years prior to diagnosis were more than twice as likely to have late-stage breast cancer. This finding illustrates an important reason for receiving regular mammograms: to increase the chance of catching breast cancer early. However, a second finding showed that better screening tests need to be developed. Almost 40 percent of women with late-stage breast cancer had a negative mammogram one to three years before their diagnosis.
http://www.cancer.gov/newscenter/pressreleases/LateStageBreast
Ladies- Do YOU go for regular mammograms? If no, why not?
I'm a breast cancer survivor--and one reason for the survival was that my tumor which was invisible in May of 1999 was found in May of 2000, growing rapidly.
One of the causes of cancer may well be that human beings are on top of the food chain and all of the insecticides, pesticides, herbicides and industrial pollutants wind up in our fatty flesh. Recent studies show that air and water pollution may be implicated in breast cancer.
No woman can clean up her environment by herself, but she can certainly improve her chances for a long, high-quality life with regular mammograms.
I don't get mammograms because I am not old enough for the process of screening to have begun. And, I am not looking forward to it's onset.
Phoenix--
A few seconds of being squashed in a machine is nothing to the 6 month duration of chemo.
It really troubles me, that some women are squeamish about having a mammogram. Noddy, you put the issue right on the line. What is a few moments of minor discomfort, if it can find early cancer, and allow doctors to start treatment for a disease has a high probability of cure if caught early?
Phoenix--
Also disturbing is that the technicians who run the machines--usually woman--get a lot of hostility. They aren't sadists--they are doing their job of preventing death from cancer.
I'm a breast cancer survivor too. I had been having mammograms yearly, and when I went for my mammo on 9/10/01, there were two teeeny little calcifications, and the radiologist took me into another room and checked the area with ultrasound, and then said that it was probably nothing but I should get a needle biopsy to be sure. I went for one the next day, which of course was 911. It turned out to be invasive ductal ca, stage one, and a hell of a week in my life.
I had surgery the next week, fine since, and I am one glad woman that I had that mammogram.
Listening, thinking.
Maybe I will.
Maybe.
ehBeth--
Tickets available on the Little Engine That Could.
Noddy, I am notoriously squeamish about odd things. I can't eat cottage cheese in a well-lit room.
I'm working up to this particular challenge.
Seeing you and OssoB post here helps focus me on the right thing to do.
ehBeth--
You can climb mountains--that's on your resume.
Stumble It!
Tweet This
Bookmark on Delicious
Share on Facebook
Share on MySpace