Breast Cancer Awareness Month -
Main Points for Articles
If you are developing articles or promotional materials regarding Breast Cancer Awareness Month, you may want to consider including the following ideas, whether you are writing for the general public, patients, or health care professionals.
Health care professionals have unique opportunities to share information with the clients they serve. October is a good time to discuss the importance of breast cancer screening with patients.
If you wish to write an article for health care professionals and are looking for statistics on incidence and mortality, stage at diagnosis, risk factors, or screening and diagnosis, please refer to the Breast Cancer Fact Sheets at www.michigancancer.org/Resources/CancerFactSheets.cfm.
October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month.
The third Friday in October each year is National Mammography Day, when
radiologists are encouraged to provide discounted or free screening
mammograms.
Early and regular screening for breast cancer increases
the likelihood of early breast cancer detection and of successful cancer
treatment.
All women who are 40 years of age or older should have
a screening mammogram and a clinical breast exam every year, according
to recommendations from the Michigan Department of Community Health
and the American Cancer Society.
Mammograms can detect tiny breast cancers before a
woman or her doctor can feel them and long before there are any noticeable
symptoms.
Michigan is the national leader in the quality of its mammography
programs. High-quality mammography helps to ensure early detection of
small, early stage breast cancer, the stage at which these cancers are
most curable.
The Michigan Breast and Cervical Cancer Control Program
(BCCCP) provides free annual breast and cervical cancer screening and
follow-up services to underserved populations through a network of local
coordinating agencies throughout the state.
To be eligible for the BCCCP, a woman must be at
least 40 years old and have a household income at or below 250 percent
of the federal poverty level.
As of July 24, 2001, a Michigan woman who is diagnosed with breast
or cervical cancer are eligible to enroll in the Medicaid program
for the duration of her cancer treatment and follow-up services.
Medicaid will pay for all of her medical expenses for as long
as she is being treated for the cancer.
Once treatment is no longer needed, she is then potentially
eligible (once again, based upon age and income) for continued
annual screening services through the BCCCP.
Note: Although they are eligible for BCCCP services, women
who are not legal residents (i.e., who are illegal aliens) are
unlikely to be eligible for Medicaid. It is a federal law that
Medicaid can only be provided to citizens or legal aliens.
Research shows that a woman is more apt to get appropriate
breast cancer screening if she is reminded by a health professional,
a personal friend, and her relatives.
This suggests that we all share in the responsibility
to care for each other and that together we can influence and possibly
save many lives.
For more information about becoming involved in the
Michigan Cancer Consortium’s efforts to increase age-appropriate annual
breast cancer screening rates, with appropriate treatment and follow-up
of positive findings, call us (toll-free) at 877-588-MCCI or e-mail
us at .
SPECIAL NOTE: Don't forget that health care professionals
have unique opportunities to share health information with the clients
they serve. October is a good time to discuss the importance of yearly
screening with patients.
If you are writing an article for health
care professionals and are looking for screening and diagnosis information
on breast cancer and statistics on breast cancer risk factors, incidence
and mortality, stage at diagnosis, and screening behaviors, you will find
them in the revised 2009 Michigan Department of Community Health fact sheet entitled
"October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month"(available as an Adobe Acrobat PDF file)*
*Please Note: You will need Adobe Acrobat Reader to open, view and print this file once it has been downloaded. If you need a free copy of Adobe Acrobat Reader, please click here.
