EARLY DETECTION THE KEY TO BREAST CANCER SURVIVAL

In a breast self-exam six years ago, Mary Lynch of Scott City found what many women fear most, a lump. The mass was cancerous and Lynch subsequently had a mastectomy.

Four years ago, Judi Eaker of Chaffee went for her annual mammogram and a suspicious spot was found. A biopsy showed she had breast cancer, and she underwent a bilateral mastectomy and reconstructive surgery.

Lynch and Eaker, sisters who have a family history of breast cancer, are survivors because they took charge of their lives. They are now committed to educating women on the importance of breast self-exams, clinical exams and mammographies.

"I found the lump myself, Lynch said. "If I hadn't done a breast self-exam, the mass would have grown. Self-exam is so very important."

"It is important that a woman do three things," Eaker explained. "She should have a professional exam, do a self-exam and have mammographies. If one doesn't catch the suspicious tumor, maybe the other one will."

Gov. Mel Carnahan has declared October as Breast Cancer Awareness Month. To bring the message home to women across the state, Missouri's First Lady has joined the American Cancer Society and the Breast and Cervical Cancer Control Project through a series of public service announcements airing during October.

One of eight women will develop breast cancer, and the risk increases with age.

The message for the month is that early detection of breast cancer is a woman's best protection. The American Cancer Society recommends women from 20 to 40 years old to have a breast exam every three years by a physician or qualified examiner and after age 40 a breast exam every year. Between the ages of 35 and 39, a woman should have a baseline mammography, from 40 to 49 a mammography every one to two years and after 50, a mammography annually.

Barbara Crowell, coordinator for the Womancare Department at St. Francis Medical Center, said Medicare will start covering a women at age 65 and will pay for a screening mammogram every two years. If someone has a problem, such as a lump in the breast, and a diagnostic test is ordered by a physician, Medicare covers those tests the doctor deems necessary.

"Our goal in Southeast Missouri is to make a difference in the numbers of women who die of breast cancer," Crowell said. "We want to try to get across that at least a third of the women who die from breast cancer could be saved if they would just follow the recommended guidelines for early detection."

A federally funded grant project from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention provides breast and cervical cancer screening for women who are at or below 200 percent of the federal poverty level. Low-cost or no-cost mammograms are provided.

Tricia Codding, project manager of the Breast and Cervical Cancer Control Project for the Missouri Department of Health, explained the program: "We provide mammograms and we are also mandated to provide education about the need and importance of breast screening to all women in Missouri.We do that through exhibits, health fairs, brochures, presentations and ads on the radio and in newspapers. We are targeting women over 50, who are at higher risk. We make a special effort to get those women into our services."

In this area, call the American Cancer Society at 1-800-227-2345 to find area providers and to learn if you qualify for the services.

Nancy Mattingly, cancer program coordinator at Southeast Hospital, stressed that younger women are not immune to breast cancer.

"Studies are showing now that more young women are developing the disease," she said. "This reinforces what we are trying to teach women that the key to survival is early detection. Breast cancer is much more aggressive when it is diagnosed in young women. We are seeing doctors use more aggressive types of treatment for young women."

Local medical professionals and volunteers have planned various activities to make women aware -- breast cancer prevention, detection and treatment.

Southeast Missouri Hospital and St. Francis Medical Center will sponsor a presentation by actress Marcia Wallace on Oct. 18 at the Drury Lodge. Since undergoing breast cancer surgery in 1985, Wallace has become a national spokesperson among women who are refusing to wait passively for a breast cancer cure.

The local Breast Cancer Awareness Committee has various activities for the month. Billboards promoting awareness will be at three sites. Information will be available at the West Park Mall, physicians' offices, retail stores, churches and libraries and in payroll stuffers for major employees. Speakers will be available for health classes in high schools and shower cards with information for young women will be placed in high school shower stalls. A speakers bureau will offer speakers on the topic to clubs and work sites. Information can be obtained by calling either Southeast or St. Francis.

Those working to make women aware of breast cancer do not limit their efforts to the month of October. Lynch and Eaker are members of Reach to Recovery and the Tell a Friend Program, which operate all year.

Reach to Recovery is made up of women who have had breast cancer and are one year past recovery. The women are trained to visit patients who have had breast removal or lumpectomies and offer support. They provide the patient with a bag of information, including an exercise program and a temporary prosthesis. The program is administered by both hospitals.

Tell a Friend is made up of breast cancer survivors from Perryville to the Bootheel who call women who have not had mammographies and stress the importance of the test.

Buddy Check 12 is a community service project sponsored by Southeast Missouri Hospital and KFVS-TV 12. The program encourages women of all ages to take responsibility for their own health by performing regular breast self-exams on the 12th of every month. On the 12th of each month, KFVS-TV 12's special Buddy Check link, Amy Jacquin, presents a special Buddy Check report.

According to Maggie Friend, Buddy Check 12 coordinator at Southeast and a local member of the American Cancer Society Board, 90 percent of all breast lumps are found by women themselves, but too few are doing self-exams regularly enough to insure timely self-detection of a suspicious breast change.

"We ask our buddies to sign up and make self-exam a monthly commitment on the 12th of every month," Friend said. "We provide a toll-free number, a self-reminder packet with stickers, magnets and a shower card. Then we encourage them to get a special friend to be their buddy and help remind them to do that life-saving self-exam every month."

The toll-free packet request number, 1-800-SE HOSPITAL, can be called 24 hours a day from anywhere within the United States.

Professionals and volunteers hope their work will not be in vain and that women will get the message.

"When you sit in a room with eight women, you can look around and say, 'One of us is going to have breast cancer,'" Eaker said. "Sometimes you'll be sitting in a room with eight women and two of you already have had it."