Senator Carper and Delaware Breast Cancer Coalition to Highlight and Promote Breast Cancer Screening Services Van in Dover

Friday, May 26, 2006 at 10:30 am

Dover, DE- Senator Tom Carper and the Delaware Breast Cancer Coalition will be on hand on Friday, May 26, 2006 at 10:30 am to highlight and promote the services of the Delaware Breast Cancer Coalition and the Women’s Mobile Health Screen van. The van is a convenient one-stop cancer-screening unit for women, and is wheelchair accessible. Mammograms done on the van are the same high-quality as those done in a standing facility. The van travels directly to the communities in Delaware that most need access to these services, and regularly visits Claymont, Wilmington, New Castle, Dover, Lewes/Rehoboth Beach, Seaford, and Frankford. Several women who have been screened and diagnosed in the van will be on hand to talk about their experiences. From June 2005 until the end of April 2006, 320 women have been screened in the van in Delaware. The American Cancer Society estimates that a woman in the U.S. has a 1 in 8 chance of developing invasive breast cancer during her lifetime. With some 3 million women in the U.S. living with breast cancer and 2.3 million having been diagnosed with the disease, more women have breast cancer than any other cancer, excluding skin cancer. An estimated 1 million do not know yet that they have the disease. It is the second leading cause of cancer death for women, and over 40,000 women in the U.S. will die from the disease this year, 110 of them from Delaware. Although for the first time in five years, Delaware’s breast cancer incidence rates have fallen below the average rates for the U.S., our state’s mortality rate is still ranked 7th in the country. Senator Carper recently was the first male senator to sign on as a co-sponsor of S. 1687, the National Breast and Cervical Cancer Early Detection Program Reauthorization Act. This legislation would extend this important program through 2011, and would also increase its funding from $203 million to $250 million per year. This initiative is administered by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention with a goal of reducing and eliminating breast and cervical cancer among women, especially low-income, uninsured, or underinsured women, who would not otherwise have access to these life-saving screening exams. In Delaware, the Screening for Life program oversees the Breast and Cervical Cancer Early Detection program. Friday, May 26, 2006 Who: Senator Tom Carper Delaware Breast Cancer Coalition Representatives American Cancer Society, Delaware Chapter Members Screening for Life Representatives Local Elected Officials Patients who have been screened in the mobile unit What: Breast Cancer Screening Event and Tour of Mobile Screening Van. When: Friday, May 26, 2006 10:30am – 11:30am Where: Delaware Breast Cancer Coalition parking lot 165 Commerce Way Enterprise Business Park Dover

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