Wyoming has one of the lowest breast cancer screening rates in the nation. Now, Susan G Komen for the Cure and G-E are trying launching a million-dollar initiative to change that.
They’re providing money for free and low-cost mammograms, they’re launching a major education campaign and they’re sending a mobile mammography unit to areas that don’t have healthcare facilities. Recent studies indicate that mammograms only save the lives of a small percentage of women who have breast cancer. That’s because some cancers grow slowly and would be detected anyway, and others are so fast-growing that early detection doesn’t help. But Mollie Williams with Komen says it’s still worth making a push to get more women screened.
“Let me be clear about this: Mammography does save lives. Are mammograms perfect? No. But it is the best that we have today. There’s no other screening out there that can detect breast cancer in its earliest stages.”
And Williams says early detection is a key factor in reducing the fatality of breast cancer.
