HEALTH MATTERS: For Molly, for You
By Carolyn Poirot, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Texas
Feb. 11–In lieu of flowers, Molly Ivins would have wanted all her women friends and readers to get mammograms in her memory.
The political humorist and author said as much when she was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1999: “I don’t need get-well cards, but I would like the beloved women readers to do something for me: Go. Get. The. Damn. Mammogram. Done.”
It’s unfortunate that this persuasive woman died the same week that the Centers for Disease Control reported a statistically significant decline in the number of American women 40 and older who receive screening mammograms every two years.
Screening mammograms can reduce mortality from breast cancer by 20 percent to 35 percent in women ages 50 to 69 and approximately 20 percent in women 40 to 49, according to the Jan. 26 issue of the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.
The drop — from 76.4 percent in 2000 to 74.6 percent in 2005 — translates to more than 1 million fewer women getting regular screening mammograms.
The reason for the decline is unclear, but the CDC says one reason could be that breast-imaging facilities face a shortage of key personnel and financial constraints at the same time that the number of women 40 and older is increasing by 2 million to 3 million a year. Dr. Len Lichtenfeld, deputy chief medical officer for the American Cancer Society, has expressed concern that it might have something to do with complacency. Women who have been getting a mammogram every one to two years could be feeling safe enough to forget about it for a year or two, he says in his blog, www.cancer.org/aspx/blog.
Whatever the reason, “continued declines in mammography use might result in increased breast cancer mortality,” the CDC report warns.
On Jan. 31, the day Molly died, online registration for the annual Tarrant County Race for the Cure began. The race is expected to attract about 20,000 participants and raise about $1 million to fund mammograms, education and breast cancer research.
Get a mammogram. Race for the cure. Remember Molly.
—–
Copyright (c) 2007, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Texas
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News.
For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.