[Brandye]

I have been off-line for a while and will continue that way. There has been, over the last year or so, some concerning good news. I want to put this in perspective and am asking the mod’s to put this on a sticky.

About a year or more ago there were world-wide news reports that self-examining breasts was having no effect on lives saved. More recently (like this week) there have been reports on a 7% decline in breast cancer diagnosis. Addressing the second point first, there has been a 3% decline in mammograms world-wide! That means that several million fewer women have been screened and that DOES make a statistical difference in diagnoses. Do not become complacent.

The first point, about self-examination, has dangers hidden in it for younger women. Last year, sixty per cent of breast tumors in women under forty were found by examination rather than mammography. Either professional exam or self-exam seems to be the way tumors are found in younger women. A case in point: A woman patient, thirty-one years old with two children had had her annual mammogram. Seven months later she was at a wedding reception. As she took a sip of red wine, a child ran into her dumping the wine all over her white jacket. She retired to the women’s room to dry and clean things off. While patting her jacket, she noticed a limp on her left breast. She saw me the next day and an oncologist the next day. The cancer had metastasized to her liver. She has just completed six months of chemo and radiation and will have a double mastectomy in three weeks. Prognosis is “guarded.”

In younger women, tumors tend to be more aggressive and faster growing. Self-examination should be a regular event (every period, for instance) for all women with breasts – roughly all of us over about twelve. It does not matter how flat-chested you are or how well endowed. Obesity does make finding lumps more difficult but otherwise the size of your breasts is irrelevant. Get to a women’s health clinic, nurse or whomever and learn to do the exam. Now!!

I cannot get a pm to those in charge. Someone else ask that this get a sticky.