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Mammograms save lives. According to the National Cancer Institute, 28 to 65 percent of the sharp decrease in breast cancer deaths from 1990 to 2000 was due to mammograms. (The rest was largely attributed to powerful new drugs available to treat breast cancer.)
Mammograms are done for both diagnostic and screening purposes. A woman can have breast cancer even if she has no symptoms. And if a woman has signs of breast cancer, the test can help determine if there is cancer present and its progression.
New York City's public hospitals offer lifesaving mammograms at little or no cost all year long. Between the years of 2003-2008, nearly 500,000 mammograms were performed at HHC facilities and nearly 94,000 mammograms in the last year alone. As a result, we are diagnosing significantly more cancers at an earlier stage when treatment is more effective and prognosis much more hopeful.
The data presented below shows the total number of diagnostic and screening mammograms provided by HHC.
Total Mammograms
HHC facilities strive to insure that all female patients between the ages of 40 and 70, who are at the greatest risk for breast cancer, receive a screening mammogram each year. Shown below are the screening rates we achieved 2007-2008.
Screening Rates*
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Mammograms
