October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month. The third
Friday in October is National Mammography Day - first proclaimed by President
Clinton in 1999 – when there is a special emphasis on encouraging women to make
an appointment for a mammography.
Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women. Every
woman has a 12% risk of developing breast cancer during her lifetime. The risk increases to 20-30 % if she has a
family history of breast cancer and to 60-90% if she has the genetic BRCA1 or
BRCA2 mutation. Yet, 3 out of 4 women diagnosed with breast cancer have no
family history of the disease and are not considered high risk. Breast cancer
is clearly a disease that should concern all women.
Breast cancer becomes more common as a woman grows older,
and one out of six breast cancers occur in women ages 40-49. The American
College of Radiology, the American
Cancer Society, and the Society for Breast Imaging recommend that women begin
getting annual mammograms at age 40.
The objective of mammography is early detection of breast
cancer, which can frequently be cured if it is found when it is small and has
not spread to other parts of the body. Mammograms can detect changes in the
breast up to two years before a patient or physician can feel them. There has
been a 1/3 reduction in breast cancer deaths since mammography screening became
widespread in 1990.
Modern mammography is effective and safe. The radiation exposure from a mammogram is
comparable to the exposure that adults receive from seven weeks of naturally
occurring background exposure from natural sources and is considered by
RadiologyInfo.org to provide very low additional lifetime fatal cancer risk.
Mammography’s proven benefits of early detection and cure far outweigh any
minimal radiation risk. Digital
mammography at Holy Name
Medical Center
is accredited by the American College
of Radiology and certified by the Food and Drug Administration.
According to Joshua Gross, MD, Medical Director of Breast
Imaging at Holy Name
Medical Center,
when the diagnosis is breast cancer,
the first questions asked are: When was the last mammogram? Could this cancer have been caught earlier?
Don’t wait. Schedule a mammography today!
To learn more about Holy Name
Breast Health Services, call 1-877-Holy-Name (1-877-465-9626) or visit: http://holyname.org/breastcenter/
To request a free copy of
“Coping with Breast Cancer: A Husband’s Perspective,” visit: www.holyname.org/copingwithbreastcancer/
