Responding to a startling report by the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on the dramatic decline of women getting mammograms to screen for breast cancer, U.S. Senator Susan Collins today joined her 15 female Senate colleagues at a special forum to question the authors of the study and experts in the field. The forum was hosted by Senator Barbara Mikulski (D-MD), Dean of the Senate Women.
The following is Senator Collins full statement.
“Regular screenings and early detection are currently the most effective ways to combat breast cancer and improve a woman’s chances for successful treatment and survival. That is why so many of us were alarmed and somewhat mystified by recent reports detailing a significant decline in the number of women who are receiving mammograms across the country.
“Breast cancer has taken a tremendous toll on far too many Americans and their families. I don’t think that there is a single person in this country who has not been personally affected, in some way, by this cancer. Breast cancer will strike more than 200,000 women this year, and more than 40,000 of them will die from the disease.
“What is particularly troubling about the reports of declining mammography rates is that the odds of surviving breast cancer have increased in recent years, in part because more women have been diagnosed in the earliest, most treatable stages of the disease. Fewer women getting mammograms could translate into more women being diagnosed at later stages of the disease. This is certain to result in higher mortality rates from breast cancer.
“I would therefore like to thank Senator Mikulski and Senator Hutchison for arranging this briefing and convening this panel of experts who will help us to explore some of the reasons behind these declining rates and to examine ways that we might reverse this trend.”
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