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arizona daily star
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 10.04.2007
This is the month for pink — above all, to be "passionately pink for the cure" for breast cancer.
Beverly Davies, executive director of the Susan G. Komen for the Cure Southern Arizona affiliate, reminds women that "the greatest risk factors for breast cancer are being female and growing older."
Which means this month — Breast Cancer Awareness Month — is a good time to think about ways to protect oneself against the disease.
One way is through screening, something that women without health insurance or without adequate coverage often do without.
But, Davies said, such women should check with the Pima County Well Woman Healthcheck Program to see if they qualify for the federally funded program administered by the state.
"Women who have been accepted into and enrolled in the program prior to being diagnosed for breast cancer are eligible to have their treatment covered by Medicaid," Davies said.
There are no ways to "back into this coverage," she said. So if a woman gets a mammogram on her own and the results are positive for the disease, she is disqualified from the Medicaid funding.
The program also provides funding for cervical cancer treatment.
For information about the program or to find out how to qualify, call 628-3591.
Seven things everyone should know about breast cancer:
• Breast cancer rates. It's estimated that 178,480 women will develop invasive breast cancer (capable of spreading to other parts of the body) in 2007, and 40,460 will die of the disease.
• Key to survival — prevention. Screening is crucial.
Mammograms: beginning at age 40.
Clinical breast exam: At least every three years ages 20-39; annually beginning at age 40.
Breast self-exam: Monthly by age 20. Catching a lesion early helps.
• Know your family history and discuss it with your doctor. Heredity raises your risk for breast cancer. But don't think that you're safe because no one in your family has had the disease. All women are at risk.
• Lifestyle is important. Eat a healthy diet. Exercise regularly. Reduce your lifetime weight gain. Avoid or limit the amount of alcohol you drink.
• Men get breast cancer, too. While rare among men, breast cancer is expected to strike 2,030 men in 2007; 450 will die.
• Risk factors for women and men. Aging. A family history of breast cancer — particularly a certain mutation. Having the chest area exposed to radiation treatments, usually for cancer such as Hodgkin's disease.
• Common symptoms. Lump in the chest area, skin dimpling or puckering, nipple changes. Also, changes such as redness of the skin or any persistent skin changes in the breast should be evaluated by a doctor.
— Information from Dr. Joanne Jeter, oncologist with the Arizona Cancer Center, and from the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation.
● Contact reporter Rosalie Robles Crowe at 573-4105 or at rcrowe@azstarnet.com.
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