New breast cancer screening recommendations from the United States Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) has led to mass confusion for women and justifiable outrage from national breast cancer and health organizations throughout the country.  The Cherry Blossom Breast Cancer Fund strongly urges all women to reject the USPSTF recommendations and follow the advice of the American Cancer Society, The Susan G. Komen Foundation, Health and Human Services Secretary, Kathleen Sebelius, and many other national organizations who recommend that women continue to get their annual mammogram starting at age forty.

“If I had followed the Task Force’s advice, I would not be alive today” says Mary Jo Jackson, a Middleburg resident and ten-year veteran of breast cancer who is still battling the disease today. “My tumor was so small that it could not be detected through a clinical or self breast exam. Mammography found my tumor.”  Mary Jo’s story is true of many women in Middleburg and our surrounding communities who have found breast cancer tumors through mammography or a self breast exam, another screening method which was also rejected by the task force.

While all cancer organizations admit that mammography is not a perfect test and has its limitations, it is the best screening exam available today. “The USPSTF says that screening 1,339 women in their 50s to save one life makes screening worthwhile in that age group” says Otis W. Brawley, M.D., chief medical officer for the American Cancer Society. “Yet USPSTF also says screening 1,904 women ages 40 to 49 in order to save one life is not worthwhile. The American Cancer Society feels that in both cases, the lifesaving benefits of screening outweigh any potential harm. This is one annual screening test I recommend unequivocally, and would recommend to any woman 40 and over, be she a patient, a stranger, or a family member,” says Brawley.       
 
Dr. Bernadine Healy, the former head of the National Institutes of Health and an adviser to Presidents Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush, advises women to ignore the new mammography recommendations and continue getting screened for breast cancer in their 40s. “I’m saying, very powerfully, ignore them. Women in their 40’s have a very aggressive kind of breast cancer. They tend to progress fast. And to not screen women in that age group is astounding to me” Healy said.

James Atkins, founder of The Cherry Blossom Breast Cancer Fund, lost his wife, Cheryl Clayton Atkins, to breast cancer in 2003. “Cheryl was diagnosed at 47 with metastatic breast cancer, despite the fact that she had no family history. Had we not missed her annual mammogram the year before we might have caught it early. I cannot urge women strongly enough about the importance of early detection and getting their annual mammogram beginning at age forty.”

 “We have worked so hard to build public trust and to urge people to get screened. And now they hear that maybe they shouldn’t bother. That is dangerous,” says Nancy Brinker, founder of the Susan G. Komen Foundation.  “Let me say this as clearly as I can: mammography saves lives, even this USPSTF report says that.  Keep doing what you are doing and continue to get an annual mammogram beginning at age 40.”

The author, Patty Jarvis, was diagnosed in 2003 at age 46 with stage III breast cancer. She has no history of breast cancer in her family. Patty found her tumor through a breast self exam.

The Cherry Blossom Breast Cancer Fund’s mission is to raise funds for breast cancer prevention and early detection through screening and education; provide support and community outreach to those individuals and families facing breast cancer in Loudoun and Fauquier counties; and advance scientific research in the fight to eradicate breast cancer. The Cherry Blossom Breast Cancer Fund is placed with the Piedmont Community Foundation, a 501c (3) organization.  Since 2007, the CBBCF has raised over $125,000. One hundred percent of the proceeds have been distributed to breast cancer organizations and hospitals including Fauquier Hospital, Inova Loudoun Hospital, the Loudoun Community Health Center, Breast Cancer Network of Strength, FISH, Blue Ridge Hospice, and Georgetown University’s Lombardi Cancer Institute.

Contact: James Atkins, Founder,
Cherry Blossom Breast Cancer Fund
Telephone: (703) 447-2302
Email: jp.atkins@yahoo.com
 www.cherryblossombreastcancerfund.org

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