Word: breasted
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...unnecessary for women who are not in a high-risk category. "Sometimes they'll say, 'You've had a couple of children and you've got no family history, so relax,' " explains Dr. Robert Smith of the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta. Yet three out of four breast-cancer victims have no known risk factors, says Smith. No woman over 40 should consider herself safe. And certainly her doctor should know better...
...cost of mammograms may also discourage women. Insurance frequently fails to cover the $50 to $200 procedure. Medicare just began paying for it this year. Public hospitals do not always offer such screening, and some state Medicaid programs have refused to provide reimbursements, which helps explain why breast cancer is often diagnosed too late among the poor. For black women in particular, the five-year survival rate is only 64%, in contrast to 77% for white women...
...Radiology has responded with a drive, launched in 1989, to examine and certify mammography facilities. It advises patients to choose a high-volume accredited facility. Another sign that a mammogram is up to snuff: the ouch factor. To get a good picture, the mammography machine must compress the breast. "If you're not uncomfortable," says UCLA's Fox, "you're probably getting a bad mammogram...
...recent years a ground swell of breast-cancer victims, feminists and legislators, inspired by the success of the AIDS lobby in bringing attention and funds to that epidemic, have been pushing for better regulation of mammography standards, for mandatory insurance coverage of mammograms, and generally for more research into the still mysterious roots of breast cancer. They point out that the U.S. government spends only $77 million a year investigating ways to prevent the illness, against $648 billion on heart- disease prevention. Last week Congresswoman Mary Rose Oakar of Ohio sought to redress the shortfall by introducing a bill that...
...patients, the lack of answers and of resources to find them amounts to an all too literal deadlock. "I am scheduled to die because I have metastatic breast cancer," says Elenore Pred, founder of the Breast Cancer Action group in San Francisco. "I'm part of the 44,000 women for whom there is no cure. But I refuse to be written off." Pred is devoting her days to lobbying for more research and better public education on the disease. As the mother of two daughters, she could leave them no healthier legacy...