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- Early
diagnosis is the key to surviving breast cancer.
- Mammography
can prevent thousands of breast cancer deaths each year.
- Regular
screening mammograms are the best way to detect breast cancer
early, when it is easiest to treat.
- All
women aged 40 and over should get a mammogram and clinical breast
exam every year, and perform monthly breast self-examination.
Women at particularly high risk should talk with their doctors
about starting screening earlier. Women aged 20-39 should have
a clinical breast exam every three years and should perform monthly
breast self-examination.
- When
having a mammogram, women should ask their doctor when they can
expect to receive the results. New regulations require mammography
facilities to send women their results within 30 days.
- Older
women are at highest risk for breast cancer, yet they are the
least likely to get mammograms.
- The
American Cancer Society can tell women where they can get a mammogram.
Call 1-800-ACS-2345.
- By
law, all mammography facilities must be certified by the U.S.
Food and Drug Administration (unless it is a Veterans Health Administration
facility). This means they must meet standards for the equipment
used, people who work there, and records that are kept.
- Mammography
can detect cancers several years before a woman or her health
care provider can feel a lump.
- Breast
abnormalities are discovered in one of three ways: by a woman
herself, by her health care provider during a physical exam, or
by a mammogram.
- Many
breast cancers are found by the woman herself, but the smallest
cancers are found by mammograms.
- Low-cost
and free mammograms are available to low-income women through
their local or state health department.
- Annual
mammograms are covered by Medicare and Medicaid.
- Most
breast lumps are not cancer.
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