September 29, 2003

Promote Early Detection of Breast Cancer

October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month (NBCAM), sponsored by numerous national public service organizations, professional associations, and government agencies. The media will be featuring programs encouraging women to get screened, including regular mammograms for women over 40. This week's email is written by a three year survivor, who thanks mammography for early detection. The NBCAM website http://www.nbcam.org/ provides links to resources to support this event, including the 2003 promotion guide at http://www.nbcam.org/promote_nbcam.cfm. A two page handout on "Finding Breast Cancer Early" is provided at http://www.nbcam.org/documents/patientpage.pdf.

According to a new Mayo Clinic article, "Among women in the United States, breast cancer is the second-leading cause of death by cancer, behind lung cancer. In 2003, an estimated 211,000 new cases of breast cancer will be diagnosed and 39,800 women will die of the disease. Breast cancer also occurs in men, although much less frequently." (Mammography: Screening tool for breast cancer http://www.mayoclinic.com/invoke.cfm?id=WO00023&si=2164) This comprehensive article covers the why as well as the how of mammography. It includes links to breast anatomy, breast cancer information, and screening guidelines. Medicare, Medicaid and most private health insurance companies reimburse all or part of the cost of screening mammograms. If you don't have health insurance, you can get a free or low-cost mammogram through the CDC's National Breast and Cervical Cancer Early Detection Program.

In Wisconsin, free screening funded by the CDC program is available from the Wisconsin Well Woman Program. This website includes links to where to go for all 72 counties and 11 tribes. In addition to Breast and Cervical Cancer, this program also provides screning for High Blood Pressure, Cholesterol Levels, Diabetes, Depression, Osteoporosis and Domestic Abuse. http://www.dhfs.state.wi.us/DPH_BCDHP/WWWP/index.htm

For our growing Hispanic population, the NBCAM website has breast cancer resources in Spanish, as does the American Cancer Society and many others. The Espanol link from the MEDLINEplus Breast Cancer page at http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/breastcancer.html features the interactive MEDLINEplus tutorials - these are also available in English.

For the Hmong population, the American Cancer Society Midwest Division has a general video, "Cancer: What You Should Know," and an accompanying patient guide that includes a glossary in English and Hmong. ACS also has a new "Ask questions about cancer: It could save your life" pamphlet in Hmong (MW457), as well as a basic breast cancer pamphlet. To order Hmong language American Cancer Society resources, call ACS 1-800-ACS-2345 or the Minnesota office at 1-952-925-2772. Search the ACS website, http://www.cancer.org for the closest ACS office - they have lots of great resources.

A moving video, "Chia Lor, Breast Cancer Survivor," was shown at the Hmong Women's Health Conference in Wausau last year. It is available for $175 from the Center for Hmong Arts and Talent (CHAT) in St. Paul - see http://www.aboutchat.org/chattv.asp. Or, borrow this video from Family Planning in Wausau or your local library.

The Hmong Health Education Network sponsored by NAHEC and NLM is working to develop bilingual multimedia cancer education materials, as well as other topics. If you have resources to share, please contact Peg Allen at pegallenmls@earthlink.net (new email). We are looking for resources already in Hmong, as well as easy to read materials that can be translated.

For more breast cancer resources, see the Healthy Wisconsin People Breast Cancer page, http://www.healthywisconsin.org/BreastCancer1.htm.

This page © 2003 NAHEC

This page last modified: 02/14/03