Delayed Start

I know of several women who were diagnosed before they might have first been tested under the revised guigelines. The lucky ones are still here to tell you they'd disagree.

Ellen S. from Arizona: "My cancer was caught in stage 1 because a very thorough (and perhaps somewhat sadistic) tech gave me an excellent mammogram.

While I was in treatment a young woman (where we lived) was diagnosed while pregnant. A few weeks later I was told about another young pregnant woman (nearby) who was diagnosed.

One might say these cases are anecdotal, but they are also real people with real lives.

And that's empirical.

Over the course of our adult lives the denominator shrank. I seem to remember 1/11 as the breast cancer ratio in the early 70s. Ellen told me it's 1/7 now. The trend is definitely headed the wrong way.

My family had no history of breast cancer within the previous three generations before my sister Jean found her own tumor at age 47, through her regular monthly self-examination (which the new panel also discredited), so she knew it was aggressive.

Her surgeon confirmed lymph node involvement, so she learned it was invasive. Stage 2 metastatic meant she'd have battles to fight beyond her immediate chemo/radiation regime and a 5 year survival chance well under 50%... Jean succumbed after 3 1/2, at age 51, November 18, 2004, five years ago today.

From the Crossroads Guitar Festival 2007