-- AmandaSheelar - 28 Oct 2005

Headline:

Mammograms Found to Lower Breast Cancer Death Rate

About:

From 1985 to 2000 the Breast Cancer death rate dramatically decreased. This article discusses scientists testing between modern medications and mammograms. Some scientists believe that powerful new drugs are the sol reason for the decrease in the death rate. However many others believe that it is mammograms, and its ability to show cancer signs early. In 1985 there were only twenty percent of woman that were receiving mammograms annually. Now twenty years later the amount of woman getting annuals has increased to seventy percent.

Although mammograms are especially important to potential cancer patients, they can also be an inconvenience to many others. This is because of the ninety percent of false positives that mammogram patients get. Another problem concerning mammograms are its lack of specific information. It can determine if there is an irregular growth, but not how potentially harmful it is. Woman can be treated for cancer and then find out that it wasn’t serious enough to remove it. Mammograms can also cause irritation in the chest area, only making the cancer more severe.

Thoughts:

The scientists that only believe on medication in my opinion are neglecting a very important point. How do you know to take the medicine if you don’t know if you have cancer? Mammograms give woman the ability to find out if they have cancer. Then medications can further assist them. However I don’t believe that mammograms can cure cancer either. Some cancers are incurable no matter what stage you catch it in.

I think that it is to every woman’s advantage to get a mammogram, whether or not it can be cured. If I had a disease as serious as cancer I would want to know, and mammograms are one of the primary ways woman can discover they have breast cancer. Yes, ninety percent of the time women receive false positives. But if it were me, I would rather have a false positive, than a positive negative, or no result at all.
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