Breast Cancer: Issues And Statistics
The Number Of Women Getting Mammograms Is Down
IMS Observations
If you are one of the thousands of women who have chosen not to get a X-Ray Mammogram, for whatever reason, we encourage you to learn more about and consider Infrared Mammography as part of your breast health program. Infrared Mammography offers you a painless and radiation free way to detect breast cancer up to eight years before X-Ray Mammography. It is especially effective in detecting a rare but deadly form of breast cancer called Inflammatory Breast Cancer (IBC) that is virtually undetectable by X-Ray Mammograms.
Philly.com - April 23, 2009
By Becky Batcha
First, the good news: After a steep fall-off in hormone-replacement therapy, the number of breast cancers being detected has dropped: from 203,500 in 2002 to an estimated 182,460 last year.
Unfortunately, the number of women getting mammograms is down, too - by 5 percent or 10 percent in some places, says breast-cancer crusader Dr. Marisa Weiss. "Part of the reason why fewer cancers are being detected may be because of that."
Complacency may be partly to blame, says Weiss, a Lankenau Hospital radiation oncologist who is founder and president of the nationally acclaimed Web site Breastcancer. org. "People think, 'Oh, this is a disease that's getting better.' "
It's true that breast-cancer treatments are now more effective, in part because tumors are routinely analyzed in the lab to develop personalized "targeted therapies." Nine out 10 women with early-stage breast cancer now survive for at least five years, and surgery is often less invasive than patients fear it will be.
Still, mammograms reduce - by about a third - a woman's overall risk of dying of breast cancer, Weiss says. "That's pretty powerful."
Locally, providers are gradually switching from film-based- to digital-mammography machines. Although the digital machines are better at detecting cancer in some women (those younger than 50, for example), the National Cancer Institute stresses that women should not put off recommended screenings to await the new technology.
Another powerful message regarding cancer in women has just crossed the Atlantic. The Million Women Study at the University of Oxford found that any amount of alcohol - even red wine - can increase a woman's risk for breast cancer, along with some less common cancers.
"From a standpoint of cancer risk, the message of this report could not be clearer," advised an editorial last month in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, based in the U.S.: "No level of alcohol consumption can be considered safe."
The American Cancer Society says women who drink should limit themselves to no more than one a day. *
Source Link
http://www.philly.com/philly/health_and_science/cancer/20090423_Breast_cancer__Issues_and_statistics.html
