Mammography

“ The National Mammography Campaign was launched to dispel myths and fears about mammography and to increase public awareness about Medicare coverage of mammograms. In the last 3 years, through community outreach, public service announcements, and partnerships with an energized business community, we have made a lot of progress. Now we must work even harder to reach women who, because of income, language, or cultural barriers, are the least likely to get mammograms. ”

“ As we strive to ensure that our health care system meets the needs of all of our citizens, we must be certain that women receive proper screening for breast cancer. In concert with self-examination and clinical check-ups, mammography can be invaluable. ”

“ Mammography can mean the difference between life and death for millions of women. Yet I know from my conversations with women around the country, particularly older women, that far too many think they don't need mammograms because they are past their childbearing years. Others are afraid of mammograms. ”

“ Women should form a partnership with their health care providers for the early detection of breast cancer, a key component of our nationwide program to reduce the toll of this disease. Research has shown that screening mammography, used together on a regular basis with a clinical breast exam and monthly breast self-examination, can reduce deaths from this disease by one-third or more for women over 50. ”

“ I urge every State government, insurance company, medical facility, and business to develop policies that ensure all women access to appropriate and affordable mammography. Of course, women must take responsibility for availing themselves of screening when it is available.
Likewise, health care professionals must make sure that their patients receive regular breast cancer screening. Businesses must offer screening to their employees in the form of insurance coverage or services offered. ”

“ All adults should ask their doctors about special tests and examinations that can detect early cancer. As examples, women should ask about the value of regular mammography and Pap smears to detect breast and cervical cancers. ”

“ I am pleased that third-party reimbursement for mammography is increasing, allowing more women to benefit from this lifesaving procedure. Through Medicare, the Department of Health and Human Services covers much of the cost of screening mammography for women 65 and older. ”

“ The NCI and HCFA hope to build on this progress through their joint campaign to raise women's awareness of the importance of regularly scheduled mammograms and the availability of Medicare mammography benefits. ”

“ Researchers have concluded that if we are to improve the survival rate of African American women, we must develop strategies aimed at increasing their use of and access to early detection techniques such as mammography. ”

“ When women do go for a mammogram, we must make sure they receive the highest quality care. High-quality mammograms can detect the vast majority of breast tumors and, when followed by prompt treatment, can reduce the risk of death by as much as 30 percent. ”

“ Scientists continue to study ways to improve mammograms and other screening technologies, and this research promises to make screening even more accurate and further reduce the number of breast cancer deaths. ”

“ I urge women throughout our nation to have appropriate mammograms, to perform routine self-examination, and to take advantage of the latest in preventive medical care. Armed with this commonsense approach and the promising advances in research and treatment, we can look forward with confidence to the day when breast cancer is finally eradicated. ”

“ While the patient is still under the anaesthetic, a microscopical examination of the tissue, which can be made in a few minutes in a well-equipped hospital, will determine whether the growth is malignant. If so, the whole breast is taken off, and the patient, in all probability, saved. If not, sew up the wound, and the subject is none the worse. Much the better, in fact, for the most innocent growth may develop cancer by irritation. Thirty per cent, or more, of breast cancers develop in this way. ”

“ If the cells undergo degeneration and absorption and the stroma contracts, the tumour becomes still harder, and tends to shrink and to draw in the surrounding parts, leading, in the breast, to retraction of the nipple and overlying skin, and in the stomach and colon to narrowing of the lumen. When the cells of the tumour undergo colloid degeneration, a _colloid cancer_ results; if the degeneration is complete, as may occur in the breast, the malignancy is thereby greatly diminished; if only partial, as is more common in rectal cancer, the malignancy is not appreciably affected. ”

“ Formation of Secondary Growths, or Metastases.—In addition to this spread of growth by direct extension, another characteristic of malignant tumours is a tendency to dissemination, that is, to reproduce themselves in various parts of the body far removed from the original site; so that it is not unusual to find after death that a cancer of the breast has?given rise to secondary, or metastatic, deposits in the lymphatic glands, the lungs, the ribs and other bones, the brain and the abdominal organs. ”

“ If any of the above symptoms occur after the age of thirty-five or forty, a woman should seek relief and insist on thorough investigation of the cause and prompt treatment.
Cancer is always at first a local disease and can be removed if early recognized and an absolute, permanent cure brought about.
CANCER OF THE BREAST.—Eighty-one per cent of an tumors of the breast are cancer or become so. Whenever a woman feels a lump in her breast, particularly if she be at the cancerous age, she should consult a skilled physician at once and keep that breast under medical observation. ”

“ To these centers, nearby posts and installations sent materials on which diagnostic assistance was required. After screening out those cases on which there were no serious diagnostic doubts or difficulties, the regional centers forwarded to the Medical Museum "such surgical cases as have a possible future administrative or 'followup' value, particularly tumors and those cases requiring final or confirmatory diagnosis." Also forwarded to the Museum were all autopsy materials, including the protocols or records, as well as the tissues involved. ”

“ More than 250,000 American women and 2,000 men will likely be diagnosed with some form of breast cancer in 2017. Fortunately, thanks to early detection and improved treatment options, deaths from breast cancer have decreased significantly in the last decade. The First Lady and I encourage all women to talk to their healthcare providers about mammograms and other methods of early detection, and about their risk of developing breast cancer, and what can be done to reduce that risk. ”

“ Malignant adenoma is a disease of the utricular glands which has been classed by some writers as a distinct disease, by others as a form of carcinoma. In it the gland-spaces are much enlarged, irregular, and joined to other gland-spaces. The columnar epithelial cells often fill the whole of the gland-space (Fig. 128) The cells, 222 however, never infiltrate the interstitial tissue, as in cancer. The muscular wall of the uterus appears to be destroyed by atrophy or by fatty degeneration.
The disease is malignant, it extends to the neighboring structures, and it destroys life. ”

“ Certain varieties--such as the atrophic cancer of the breast which occurs in old people, and some forms of cancer in the rectum--are so indolent in their progress that they can scarcely be said to shorten life; while others--such as the softer varieties of mammary cancer occurring in young women--are among the most malignant of tumours. ”

“ In attempting to arrive at a conclusion as to the innocence or malignancy of any tumour, too much reliance must not be placed on its histological features; its situation, rate of growth, and other clinical features must also be taken into consideration. It cannot be too emphatically stated that there is no hard-and-fast line between innocent and malignant growths; there is an indefinite transition from one to the other. The possibility of the transformation of a benign into a malignant tumour must be admitted. ”

“ As is well known, it is not difficult to make an X-ray picture of the bones of the body. They are so much denser than the soft parts of the body that, even with the ordinary photographic plate, it has been possible to photograph them fairly well. By pumping the stomach full of gas or air—which are highly transparent to the [Pg 22] X-rays—and then applying the X-ray, it has sometimes been possible to locate the beginnings of cancer of the stomach, and the place of malignant growth. ”

“ An atypical tumor is one of epithelial or connective tissue origin in which, though the cells are the same as those in the tissue from which it grows, their arrangement is quite different. They are malignant.
The most important classification of tumors is that into benign and malignant.
A benign tumor is one in which there is no tendency to rapid growth; the symptoms are purely local, and the general health is not affected, except indirectly.
On the other hand a malignant tumor is one which takes on a rapid growth with a tendency to infiltrate or [Pg 153] adhere to surrounding tissues ”

“ Unfortunately, whilst one is experimenting in the treatment of an operable cancer, the epithelial cells of the growth may be making their way towards distant parts, where no rays or emanations could possibly reach them. Whatever may be the future of radium as a therapeutic agent in the treatment of cancer of the breast, it is certain that, on the facts as known at the beginning of 1910, the only safe course is to remove the breast by direct operation, together with the associated lymph-spaces and lymphatic glands. ”

“ A frequent form of so-called malignant disease proves to be only a collection of altered epithelium-cells. Even cancer itself has no specific anatomical element, and the diagnosis of a cancerous tumor by the microscope, though tolerably sure under the eye of an expert, is based upon accidental, and not essential points,—the crowding together of the elements, the size of the cell-nuclei, and similar variable characters. ”

“ Tumors originate from many causes. Some are congenital and others grow in later life from an inherited tendency.
Any continued irritation which acts mechanically or chemically so as to maintain a constant, though slight, degree of undue vascularity of a part, such as the hot, rough stem of a clay pipe or a jagged tooth, favors the development of a malignant growth. Certain benign growths, such as warts or moles, are especially prone to malignant change. Age and sex also predispose to tumor formation.
Thus carcinoma is a rarity under thirty years of age ”

“ Take any gland which has cause to increase in size during adult life, as, for instance, the mammary gland, in preparation for lactation, and you will find massing columns and nests of cells pushing out into the surrounding tissue in all directions, in a way that is absolutely undistinguishable in its earlier stages from the formation of cancer. It is a fact of gruesome significance that the two organs—the mammary gland and the uterus—in which this process habitually takes place in adult life are the two most fatally liable to the attack of cancer. ”