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Date: Tuesday, Oct. 1, 1996
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: CDC Press Office,  (404) 639-3286

Stressing the importance of routine breast cancer screening for all women, HHS Secretary Donna E. Shalala today announced the expansion of the Breast and Cervical Cancer Early Detection Program to all 50 states, with $102 million in federal funding for the upcoming year.

Since its first year of operation in 12 states in 1991, this program has provided screening tests to nearly a million medically underserved women.

The announcement came as National Breast Cancer Awareness Month activities were launched nationwide.

"We know that regular mammograms can substantially reduce the chance of death from breast cancer," said Secretary Shalala. "It is important that we reach every American woman with this message. And it is especially important that we reach racial and ethnic minority women throughout our country, because breast cancer mortality among these women is disproportionately high."

The Breast and Cervical Cancer Early Detection Program, operated by the CDC, serves low income and minority women, older women and those who are uninsured or underinsured. Operating in an increasing number of states each year since 1991, it is going nationwide this month with the addition of programs in Alambama, Delaware, Hawaii, Idaho, Indiana, Kentucky, Mississippi, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Dakota, South Dakota, Tennessee, Virginia, Wyoming and Washington D.C., as well as the Northern Mariana Islands, Republic of Palau, Virgin Islands, Hopi Tribe, Native American Rehabilitation Association of the Northwest, the Navajo Nation, and Indian Community Health Service.

From its inception through May 1996, the program provided 457,600 mammograms to women. Breast cancer was diagnosed in 2,495 of them.

In addition, Papanicolaou (Pap) tests have been provided to 612,008 women, and 19,166 were found to have a precursor of cervical cancer called cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN I, II or III, which can be treated successfully). Almost all deaths from cervical cancer are preventable through widespread use of Pap testing and timely and appropriate treatment. Invasive cervical cancer has been diagnosed in 239 women through the CDC program.

The CDC program provides outreach screening and education programs through a broad array of facilities, including local health departments, community and migrant health centers, private physician offices, family planning and church sponsored clinics, YWCAs, women's shelters and senior centers.

"Public education and outreach have played important roles in the long-term success of this program," said CDC Director David Satcher, M.D. "CDC and its partners have successfully reached medically underserved women with screening through a variety of intensive community-based efforts."

Educating consumers and health professionals is the cornerstone of the National Breast Cancer Awareness Month (NBCAM) program which enters its second decade of public and professional educational outreach efforts. Two HHS agencies, the CDC and the National Cancer Institute, join with 15 other national organizations as co-sponsors of the October National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, which is dedicated to increasing awareness of the importance of early detection of breast cancer.

This year, National Mammography Day will be celebrated on Friday, October 18. On National Mammography Day, women across America are encouraged to receive or sign up for a screening mammogram or to make a commitment to get one.

Breast cancer research and screening have been high priorities for HHS under Secretary Shalala. In 1993, she convened a conference to develop a National Action Plan on Breast Cancer, and implementation of the plan is being carried out through a public-private partnership led by HHS' Office on Women's Health. Total HHS discretionary funding for breast cancer research and programs has increased from about $90 million in 1990 to an estimated $507 million in FY 1996.

Breast cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer among American womenAlthough death rates from breast cancer have been declining in recent years, breast cancer accounts for 31 percent of all cancers among women. Epidemiologic studies estimate that breast cancer will be diagnosed in 1.5 million American women in this decade, and that breast cancer will claimn nearly half a million lives.

Death rates from the disease are highest among women aged 40 or older and black women as compared to white women for those aged less than 70 years. With proper screening and treatment, however, the chances of surviving breast cancer are improving. For women age 50-69, regular mammograms can reduce the chance of death from breast cancer by one third or more. Despite these numbers, nearly half of women age 50 and older have not had a mammogram in the past two years.