|
Lee Memorial Health System's Breast Health
Centers has launched the “Breast Friend for Life”™ campaign,
aimed at encouraging women 40 and older to get regular mammograms.
The new campaign began as part of the center's participation in
National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, in October.
"This effort highlights our way of being
a ‘breast friend' to the local community, by providing women
with a softer mammogram using the MammoPad® breast cushion,”
said Mai Saif, M.D. of the
Breast Health Centers.
"We also want to encourage friends and family to be
‘breast friends' to women who should be getting regular
mammograms."
Dr. Saif noted the centers are "focusing
on overcoming barriers that often prevent women from getting
mammograms. In particular we want to address the fear that
mammograms may be painful.”
The specially designed MammoPad® breast
cushion is placed on the mammography machine to provide a soft,
warm cushion for the breast. The single-use breast cushion has
been found to significantly ease the discomfort of mammography for
most women.
Another special focus of the "Breast
Friend for Life" campaign is women 70 and older, said Dr.
Saif.
A new report from the American Cancer Society
(ACS) says older women face dual risks: They are more likely than
younger women to get breast cancer, and they are less likely to be
regularly screened for the disease. Annual screening mammograms
are widely recognized as the best way to detect breast cancer at
its earliest and most treatable stage.
"Women over the age of 70 remain
underrepresented in [mammography] screening populations and
represent a group in which considerable impact might still be
made," said a paper published in the July/August 2003 issue
of CA, A Cancer Journal for
Clinicians.
The Breast Health Centers are reminding women
to ask their family doctor, gynecologist or other physician to
refer them for a mammogram.
For more information on Lee Memorial Health
System's Breast Health Center, call (239) 432-2554.
|
