A mammogram is front-line defense against breast cancer

Delaware County scores high in most health mea­sures and was recently named the health­i­est county in Ohio accord­ing to a study by the Robert Wood John­son Foun­da­tion and the Uni­ver­sity of Wis­con­sin Pop­u­la­tion Health Insti­tute. But we lag behind in one crit­i­cal area: the num­ber of women who receive screen­ing mammograms.

Among the 30 coun­ties rep­re­sented by Susan G. Komen Colum­bus, Delaware County has one of the low­est per­cent­ages of women get­ting screened. With one of the high­est detec­tion rates for late-stage breast can­cer, we rank sixth in Ohio for breast can­cer mor­tal­ity, accord­ing to the Amer­i­can Can­cer Society.

The mam­mo­gram is our front-line defense against breast can­cer. It can catch can­cer in its ear­li­est stages, greatly increas­ing the chance of sur­vival. How early? Mam­mo­grams can find up to 90 per­cent of breast can­cers as many as two years before they can be felt. Women should not wait to find a lump or expe­ri­ence some other symp­tom to have a mammogram.

Thanks to the gen­er­ous sup­port of a $65,500 grant from Komen Colum­bus, which has made our county a pri­or­ity among its 30-county ser­vice area, Grady Memo­r­ial Hos­pi­tal is putting forth an all-out effort to remove the bar­ri­ers that pre­vent women from hav­ing screenings.

Delaware County as a whole is known for its growth, low unem­ploy­ment and high level of edu­ca­tion, but it still has large pock­ets of women who do not have insur­ance cov­er­age for mam­mo­grams. Fif­teen per­cent of Ohio women are unin­sured and some insur­ance does not pay for pre­ven­tive ser­vices such as mammograms.

Cost doesn’t have to be a rea­son to not get screened. In col­lab­o­ra­tion with Komen Colum­bus, which holds its annual Race for the Cure on May 19 in down­town Colum­bus, Grady offers free screen­ing and diag­nos­tic mam­mo­grams for unin­sured and under­in­sured women in our county. We’ve made vouch­ers avail­able through our pri­mary care providers, or you can call the hos­pi­tal at 740–615-2403 for an appoint­ment. The screen­ings may be done at the hos­pi­tal or in the Ohio­Health mobile mam­mog­ra­phy unit, which offers free screen­ings twice a year at Grace Clinic. We use the lat­est computer-aided dig­i­tal tech­nol­ogy to receive the best pos­si­ble pic­ture and most accu­rate result.

The risk of breast can­cer greatly increases with age, and 40 per­cent of the women in our county are ages 40 and older.

Every woman should have a base­line screen­ing between the ages of 35 and 40 and an annual exam there­after. Women who have risk fac­tors should talk to their doc­tor about their screen­ing sched­ule. Some women believe that they do not need to be screened unless they have a fam­ily his­tory of breast can­cer, but the vast major­ity of can­cers have no genetic link.

A mam­mo­gram takes only 10 or 15 min­utes. It may involve a few sec­onds of dis­com­fort as your breasts are com­pressed and flat­tened between plates to get the best image pos­si­ble, but today’s new equip­ment has greatly min­i­mized any discomfort.

Grady’s com­mit­ment to the early detec­tion and suc­cess­ful treat­ment of breast can­cer will again be reflected by our strong con­tin­gent of asso­ciates, care­givers, sur­vivors and their loved ones at next month’s Race for the Cure.

Money from Race for the Cure comes back to our com­mu­nity. In addi­tion to free screen­ings, it pays for sup­port groups, classes, ther­apy, med­ica­tion assis­tance and sup­plies. For more infor­ma­tion about this event or about the ser­vices we offer through these grants, con­tact me at 740–615-2403.

To sched­ule your mam­mo­gram, call 614–566-1111 or 877–566-1112.

Freda Clark, RN, BSN, OCN, is a breast health nurse at Grady Memo­r­ial Hospital.

Posted by Grady Memorial Hospital on Apr 25 2012. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Comments can be made below.