A series of upcoming breast-cancer screening clinics is all about preventing breast cancer and increasing awareness about the dangers posed by breast cancer.

The free clinical breast exams during Breast Cancer Awareness Month, offered in a private setting by a physician or medical provider, are scheduled for this month. The clinics are part of the local Paint the Town Pink campaign. Their dates and locations follow.

• Oct. 5, 9 a.m. to noon, Vidant Women’s Care-Washington, 1204 W. Brown St., Washington.

• Oct. 10, 5:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m., Vidant Family Medicine-Belhaven, 245 Allen St., Belhaven.

• Oct. 26, 9 a.m. to noon, Vidant Family Medicine-Aurora, 151 W. Third St., Aurora.

To register for a screening, call 1-800-472-8500 or visit VidantHealth.com/pinkpower.

“The screening for breast cancer is important because we know that it reduces the death rate from breast cancer. Over the past 30 years or so, the death rate has gone down by using mammographic screening,” said Dr. John Inzerillo with the Marion L. Shepard Cancer Center in Washington. “The issue becomes when do you start to screen. The problem is that if you start to screen too early, the younger females their breasts are dense. So what the radiologist will see on a mammogram is a lot of white because of the fibrous tissue in the breast. When you look at cancer, when it shows up on a mammogram, it’s white also. When you’re trying to see white on white, you aren’t going to see anything.”

As a woman gets older fatty tissue replaces fibrous tissue, Inzerillo said. Fatty tissue appears dark on a mammogram. The darkness makes it easier to see cancer if it’s present, he said.

Inzerillo said deciding when a woman should begin having regular and ending them depends on several factors, including the woman’s age, physical condition and history of breast cancer in her family.

Not all women need mammograms, he said.

“So, for ages, you can say 40 to like 75 for screening. Again, based on the risk, do you start at 40 or do you start at 50?” Inzerillo said. “When you look at risk, there’s something called breast-cancer prevention. There were two different trials. One was the breast cancer-prevention trial using tamoxifen.”

Tamoxifen is a hormone used to treat women with breast cancer.

“We know that if we give tamoxifen to somebody who has breast cancer, we’ve reduced their risk of breast cancer by 50 percent,” he said.

Inzerillo said women who take tamoxifen or raloxifene (a sister drug to tamoxifen) decrease their risk of getting breast cancer by 50 percent.”

Inzerillo mentioned a study about the use of tamoxifen by women who met certain conditions.

“They took tamoxifen for five years. At the end of five years, the one group that didn’t take tamoxifen had twice as many breast cancers as the group that did take tamoxifen,” he said.

Inzerillo said the down side of tamoxifen is side effects such as deep-vein thrombosis — blood clots in a leg, arm or lung.

“You have to balance the risk and benefit,” he said.

Sometimes, it pays to go beyond a mammogram to an MRI, he said.

Amanda Sanders, a spokeswoman for Beaufort Vidant Hospital, said people who plan to attend one of the screenings need to know what to expect at the screenings,

“These three breast-cancer screenings are not mammograms. These are clinical breast exams by a physician. … I just want to make sure people understand they’re not coming for a mammogram,” Sanders said.

Inzerillo said that if a clinical breast exam determines that a mammogram may be warranted, that procedure would be suggested to the person.

“If your risk is 20 percent or higher, than might mean an MRI. If it’s a definite finding, then it means a biopsy,” he said.

Inzerillo said breast-cancer screenings are important.

“It’s just the fact about raising awareness to do it. It does save lives. The earlier you do catch these breast cancers, the more likely you’re going to live out a natural life,” he said.

 

 

Breast-cancer facts

• Estimated new cases and deaths from breast cancer in the United States in 2013:

New cases: 232,340 (female); 2,240 (male)

Deaths: 39,620 (female); 410 (male).

• Based on solid evidence, screening mammography may lead to the following benefit: decrease in breast cancer mortality.

• Technologies such as ultrasound, magnetic resonance imaging, tomosynthesis and molecular breast imaging are being evaluated, usually as adjuncts to mammography.

• Based on solid evidence, combination hormone therapy (HT; estrogen-progestin) is associated with an increased risk of developing breast cancer.

• Based on solid evidence, obesity is associated with an increased breast cancer risk in postmenopausal women who have not used hormone therapy. It is uncertain whether reducing weight would decrease the risk of breast cancer.

• Based on solid evidence, women who breast-feed have a decreased risk of breast cancer.

Source: Marion L. Shepard Cancer Center, National Comprehensive Cancer Network.