Mammograms?!

The National Cancer Institute has sponsored a study that has been able to provide evidence that mammograms have contributed to the drastic decline in the death toll from breast cancer. Before the study, many doctors would not support the claim that mammograms help prevent deaths from breast cancer. The lack of support from the professionals can be traced to the unclear benefits from the testing. Mammograms have not been officially confirmed as effect, however there have been numerous risks established by having the test, including treating indolent cancers. Despite these risks, doctors have announced the death toll from breast cancer has decreased by twenty-four percent from 1990 to 2000. Whether this decline has been because of new drugs or mammograms is uncertain, however the fifty percent increase of women over forty years of age receiving the test does seem to have a significant influence in the doctors' sudden review of opinion about mammograms.

The National Cancer Institute (NCI) has been able to sponsor this and thousands of other studies for cancer since the National Cancer Act of 1971. President Richard Nixon signed the National Cancer Act on December 23, 1971. The Act sparked the United States resources to fight cancer and gave the director of the NCI the authority to create new cancer centers and training programs, appoint advisory committees, expand the research plants throughout the United States, award contracts for research, conduct cancer control activities, and establish an international cancer research data bank with the approval of the National Cancer Advisory Board. The hope of the Act was to accelerate cancer research and use the research to reap effective treatments. Since the Cancer Act has been in place, the NCI has " produced an extraordinary record of scientific discovery and spawned a nationwide network of cancer centers" (see National Cancer Act website for quote).