Increasing the Effort Toward Breast Cancer Detection
- Michael D. Wertheimer, MD;
- Mary E. Costanza, MD;
- Thomas F. Dodson, MD;
- Carl D'Orsi, MD;
- Harris Pastides, PhD;
- Jane G. Zapka, ScD
- From the Departments of Surgery (Dr Wertheimer) and Radiology (Dr D'Orsi), the Breast Clinic (Dr Wertheimer), and the Division of Oncology, Department of Medicine (Dr Costanza), University of Massachusetts Medical Center, Worcester; the Department of Surgery, Harvard Medical School and New England Deaconess Hospital, Boston (Dr Dodson); and the Departments of Epidemiology/Biostatistics (Dr Pastides) and Health Policy and Management (Dr Zapka), University of Massachusetts School of Health Sciences, Amherst.
Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text.
Excerpt
IN 1985, cancer continued to be the second-leading cause of death in the United States, and cancer of the breast accounts for more deaths of American women than any other malignancy except for lung cancer. It is estimated that, in 1986, a total of 119,000 women will develop cancer of the breast, and approximately 39,000 women will die of this disease.1 Because breast cancer will develop in one of every 11 women (9%), all women should be considered at risk for the development of breast cancer.2 Women themselves are well aware of the breast cancer problem. In a survey done by the National Institutes of Health in 1979, over three fourths of the respondents thought that cancer was the greatest health concern for women today, and nearly half mentioned breast cancer specifically.3 Since the five- and ten-year survival of women with breast tumors relates directly to tumor
Footnotes
-
Reprint requests to Department of Surgery, University of Massachusetts Medical Center, 55 Lake Ave N, Worcester, MA 01605 (Dr Wertheimer).
