National Breast Cancer Coalition
National Breast Cancer Coalition (NBCC) is dedicated to ending breast cancer through the power of grassroots action and advocacy.

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Flickr pictures by National Breast Cancer Coalition | Showing 15 photos within the Annual Advocacy Training Conference 2008 set

 
National Breast Cancer Coalition

National Breast Cancer Coalition Thanks to Laura N. for this blog post about the new breast cancer screening guidelines and the outrage that followed.

breastcanceradvocate.wordpress.com
Outraged breast cancer survivors were heard loud and clear this past week – they weren’t happy with the new breast cancer screening guidelines. But why the outrage against guidelines based ...
National Breast Cancer Coalition

National Breast Cancer Coalition Everyone was talking about breast cancer last week. Were you? Make sure you know the Myths & Truths about breast cancer and then commit to talking with others. http://takeaction.stopbreastcancer.org/MythConversationsResources

Mon at 5:35am
National Breast Cancer Coalition

National Breast Cancer Coalition "There are multiple reasons women are ill-informed about breast cancer. The fault lies primarily with their physicians, the cancer establishment, and the news media—especially the news media. Until coverage of breast cancer rises above the level of scary warnings mixed with heartwarming stories of cancer survivors, wom...en are likely to go on being perplexed." Talk to the Media about breast cancer and make a difference. http://takeaction.stopbreastcancer.org/TalkMedia

www.theatlantic.com
Many are dismissing the new breast cancer recommendations as a hasty reversal of years of authoritative medical advice. But evidence weighing against screenings for women in their 40s has in fact been mounting for years.
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Lynn
Lynn
then find a screening tool that will save those of us who would have died without their mammogram...like me...at 40....I resent being EXPENDABLE...
Mon at 4:43pm
Kathy Ann
Kathy Ann
I was diagnosed with breast cancer at age 26, had chemo on my 27th birthday and just celebrated my 29th birthday. The first doctor I went to said I was imagining things and that nobody under the age of 30 gets cancer. There is no family history of any kind of cancer. They should start talking to women about breast cancer and help them be aware of their bodies and not to wait until they're 40. If I had waited until then I wouldn't be here writing tis.
3 hours ago
National Breast Cancer Coalition

National Breast Cancer Coalition For two decades, Visco says, cancer groups have oversold and oversimplified the benefits of early detection to get women to follow their advice about breast screening. Many women now see mammograms as completely positive, with no risks, and are unwilling to give them up.

"When we give public health messages, we better b...e damn sure that they are rooted in a high level of evidence," Visco says. "Taking back our words when we finally have the right evidence is virtually impossible."

www.usatoday.com
Breast cancer campaigns have helped raise awareness. But are all those pink ribbons giving women an inflated fear of the disease?...
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National Breast Cancer Coalition

National Breast Cancer Coalition It's like deja vu all over again.

www.nytimes.com
The current dispute over mammograms gives many people who’ve been around since the 1980s a sense of déjà vu. Like archeologists arguing endlessly over the same set of bones, cancer specialists, it can seem, have been arguing endlessly over pretty much the same set of data.
National Breast Cancer Coalition

National Breast Cancer Coalition One of many columns in this blog that provides analysis of the media coverage of the breast cancer screening story (and health news in general)

blog.lib.umn.edu
Gary Schwitzer, University of Minnesota School of Journalism & Mass CommunicationPublisher, HealthNewsReview.orgschwitz@umn.edu
National Breast Cancer Coalition

National Breast Cancer Coalition Quoting National Women's Health Network President Cynthia Pearson: Information is always a good thing and we’re glad more women now have access to good information. But, I’m not at all happy today. Not even to be proven right about things that I took a lot of criticism for saying. Rather, I’m outraged. We’ve known for ...16 years that mammography screening doesn’t work well for women before menopause, and not at all for women under 40. And at the same time, we’ve known that a significant number of breast cancer cases occur in women under 50. So once we knew mammography wasn’t good enough, the next step was obvious – we need to find something better.

www.minnpost.com
I expected some controversy and debate about the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force’s new recommendations about breast cancer screening, but nothing as virulent as what has occurred over the past few days.
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National Breast Cancer Coalition

National Breast Cancer Coalition As Dr. Sue Love has said on her own Facebook page: "Most women under 50 actually find their cancers on palpation and are still cured. It is about the biology of the tumor NOT when it is found that is critical for survival. What the studies showed is that in young women mammograms are not life saving because they miss t...he aggressive cancers and also cause some cancers from the cumulative radiation. Formal BSE as taught by docs has NOT been shown to be better than the normal poking around we all do. That is why docs should not teach it. It does not say that women should not get to know their breasts." Here is one woman's story which illustrates the facts that Dr. Love describes.

www.huffingtonpost.com
At 35, I had my first mammogram. It was clean as a whistle. At 36, I was diagnosed with three cancerous tumors in my right breast, two of which were larger than 2.5 centimeters.
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Oscar
Oscar
Holy Cow: Not a single Oncologist (Cancer Doctor) and not a single Radiologist on the "Task Force" which recommended females get their mammograms beginning at the age of 50. Sounds like the health insurance companies had something to do with this.
November 19 at 6:52am
DeZengo Moore
DeZengo Moore
I pray that women and gentle men will stand up and take charge of many of their health related issues! PREVENTION not Treatment. Prevention is NOT that difficult, but it does require education & implementation.

As a stage III / multiple tumor survivor, I see now (downdog hindsight 20/20 thing!) But we have neglected our body | mind | spirit for many years and the result of this neglect has been mental and physical disease.

NOW - however, we are looking & sharing this knowledge. No one can take care of your specially packaged human "BODY" but --> YOU! We have to become involved in our health care process and often we discover we already know innately what is "good or not so good" for our body. ... See More

Keep on those downdog insurance companies and the health care industry in general. They make "alot" of money on our "unhealthy" lifestyles.

LOVE your body and it will carry you a long way!
November 19 at 8:02am
Diane Heeren
Diane Heeren
At first I was furious with this new study telling us no mammograms until 50 but then I remembered I had my mammo in Oct of 2003 and found my cancer myself through self exam in June 2004. Obviously the mammogram did not work. Plus I had told my GP who said oh a pulled muscle ! Then my Gyno said oh thats density . So from June to Nov I believed that... See More mammo and those doctors ! Finally Nov 2004 I told the tech doing my next mammogram and guess what "CANCER" Stage 2b invasive ductual with 4 positive nodes. So the only prevention that worked for me was good old self exam !!
November 19 at 10:39am
National Breast Cancer Coalition

National Breast Cancer Coalition "The dogma that more is always better when it comes to cancer screening has taken hold, undiluted by any sense of screening's drawbacks. Yet there are drawbacks—ranging from the risk of false positives to the more complex issues of overdiagnosis and overtreatment. While early detection can certainly have benefits, it's... not true that screening can only help—and can't hurt." You've heard lots of talk about the benefits of screening; read the full article and learn more about the shortcomings -- and harms -- of cancer screening. Then, make a personal choice.

www.slate.com
The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force has announced new mammography guidelines this week. While the task force previously encouraged screenings for women beginning at 40, it has now pushed the threshold to 50. Concerns over frequent false positives and p
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Dawn Roark Anderson
Dawn Roark Anderson
I agree Frank - anecdotal stories are compelling. Data is often boring and hard to understand and certainly not "sexy" to the media who feed this information to the public. It's a sticky situation but I think we all need to keep a positive conversation going so we can move forward and not get stuck in what is rapidly becoming a political firestorm tying this into healthcare reform.
November 18 at 7:36pm
Oscar
Oscar
Holy Cow: Not a single Oncologist (Cancer Doctor) and not a single Radiologist on the "Task Force" which recommended females get their mammograms beginning at the age of 50. Sounds like the health insurance companies had something to do with this.
November 19 at 4:53am
National Breast Cancer Coalition

National Breast Cancer Coalition From the White House: Just so there’s no ambiguity, here are the answers to about every question you (or “critics”) might have on the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force

www.whitehouse.gov
WhiteHouse.gov is the official web site for the White House and President Barack Obama, the 44th President of the United States. This site is a source for information about the President, White House news and policies, White House history, and the federal government.
Nancy Miller
Nancy Miller
Don't believe it. This will be used down the road to ration health care.
November 18 at 10:41am
Trace
Trace
Exactly - next the NBCC is going to recommend no reconstruction after masts because "it's painful and women dont really NEED breasts."
November 18 at 11:07am
Laura
Laura
I'm amazed at how quickly so many want to jump on the concept of less healthcare! Why are we even considering this? Someone please help me understand!
November 18 at 6:56pm
National Breast Cancer Coalition

National Breast Cancer Coalition "This is not an issue of what we want to believe or what we have been told. The issue is, 'What does the science tell us?' Women deserve the truth even when it is complicated. They can accept it."

blogs.usatoday.com
In Washington today, politicians too often just stand their ground. Liberal strategist Bob Beckel and conservative columnist Cal Thomas provide a better model.
National Breast Cancer Coalition

National Breast Cancer Coalition “This is our opportunity to look beyond emotions,” said Fran Visco, president of the National Breast Cancer Coalition. The task force “is an independent body of experts that took an objective look at the data,” Ms. Visco said. “These are the people we should be listening to when it comes to public health messages.”

www.nytimes.com
The new recommendations, released Monday by an influential group, reverse longstanding guidelines and are aimed at reducing harm from overtreatment.
Trace
Trace
Oh OK so in the meantime you want women to stop self checking for lumps and just live their lives, and one day when they have liver pain or are seeing spots, then they can go to the doc and find a stage 4? So all the "early detection saves lives" and how-to shower cards and "feel your boobies" and pink ribbon awareness campaigns were for nothing... See More... Read More? There will be no more stage 0, stage 1 cancers? I'm sorry, but finding my cancer early DID save my life. Are you taking that away from me?
November 17 at 8:02pm
National Breast Cancer Coalition

National Breast Cancer Coalition "It's about time," said Fran Visco, president of the National Breast Cancer Coalition, a Washington-based patient advocacy group. "Women deserve the truth -- and the truth is the evidence says this is not always helpful and can be harmful."

www.washingtonpost.com
Women in their 40s should stop routinely getting annual mammograms, and older women should cut back to one scheduled exam every other year, an influential federal task force has concluded, challenging the use of one of the most common medical tests.
DeZengo Moore
November 16 at 3:07pm
Lynn
Lynn
THIS IS PATHETIC...A BASELINE MAMMOGRAM AT 40 SAVED MY LIFE!!!! I WOULD NEVER HAVE FELT MY LUMP!!!
November 16 at 4:17pm
Debra King
Debra King
Well, l I felt a lump at 46, and a mammogram, followed by a diagnostic mammogram told me that I was fine!! Go figure. I had yet another larger tumor in the back of my breast that wasn't even seen on either mammogram. Go figure.
November 17 at 11:39am
National Breast Cancer Coalition

National Breast Cancer Coalition NBCC commends new USPSTF guidelines on mammography and BSE. http://tr.im/F6m9

November 16 at 2:56pm
National Breast Cancer Coalition

National Breast Cancer Coalition Visit NBCC's Health Care Reform Action Center. http://tr.im/F48R Watch webcast from last week and take action!

November 16 at 5:35am