Zupkus, Area Legislators Call for Early Detection of Breast Cancer at Informational Forum

BETHANY- To commemorate October as Breast Cancer Awareness Month, State Representative Lezlye Zupkus (R-89) & State Senator George Logan (R-17) with Special Guest House Republican Leader Themis Klarides (R-114) hosted an informational forum about Breast Cancer at the Lakeview Lodge in Bethany.

In 2016, Reps. Klarides and Zupkus supported legislation in the General Assembly calling for health insurance coverage for Tomosynthesis breast cancer screenings. 3D Tomosynthesis saves lives through better and earlier detection of breast cancer. It also eliminates false positives, while mammograms still provide faulty results 41 percent of the time. In addition, it will save money on insurance costs since callbacks are reduced by 40 percent from the levels associated with 2D mammograms.

“I want to thank everyone for attending this Breast Cancer Awareness event. Our aim with this forum was to raise greater awareness and make sure everyone has all the accurate information and gets the message that early detection in the key to conquering breast cancer disease,” said Rep. Lezlye Zupkus.

House Republican Leader Themis Klarides said; “Bringing awareness to Breast Cancer prevention, treatment, newly enacted laws and the importance of early detection is crucial to ensuring women’s health.  Thank you to Representative Zupkus for hosting this informative discussion.”

Sen. George Logan said, “At the State Capitol, we will continue to support bipartisan legislation to heighten awareness and education and to increase the chances of early diagnosis.  Did you know that the five-year survival rate is 99 percent when breast cancer is diagnosed early and confined to the breast? Early detection matters! We thank area residents for attending our forum.”

Connecticut was the first state in the nation to legislate that doctors must tell a mammography patient whether or not they have dense breast tissue and that the 3D legislation was necessary because the 2D imaging that was in statute was from the 80s and the new technology should be covered.

The panel included:

• Dr. Andrew Lawson, Radiologist at Waterbury Hospital
• Dr. Liva Andrejeva, from the Department of Breast Imaging at the Yale School of Medicine
• Kristen Marquis, Breast Cancer Survivor
• Lynette White, Breast Cancer Survivor

During the discussion, Dr. Lawson explained the importance of the density legislation and how coverage of the 3D imaging was needed for women with dense breasts where 2- dimensional imaging is not effective. Unlike (2D) Mammography, 3- Dimensional images can reveal slices of the breast which help to improve tissue visualization and improves cancer rates and decreases the need for additional imaging in some instances.

Dr. Liva Andrejeva, from Yale discussed about the fact that the 3D imaging has a lower rate of false positives than 2D; 2D has a range of 8-12% false positives and 3D has 6-8%. In addition, it will save money on insurance costs since callbacks are reduced by 40 percent from the levels associated with 2D mammograms. She also said 3D provides better diagnostics even in very dense breasts.

Both Kristen Marquis and Lynette White talked about their individual stories of cancer survival and the key to beating breast cancer is early detection.

Breast cancer is the most common cancer diagnosed in women in the United States, other than skin cancer. It is the second leading cause of cancer death in women, after lung cancer. Because 1 in 8 women will battle invasive breast cancer some time during her lifetime, it has never been more important to catch it early.

Follow organizations like Coppafeel, the Susan G. Komen Foundation, Prevent Cancer Foundation, and Breast Cancer Fund, to help spread the word and get familiar about what you need to know about your body.

For more information on breast cancer prevention, screening guidelines, and treatment, please visit the American Cancer Society’s website.