Improve screening for breast cancer
I just recently returned from Washington, D.C., where I joined more than 200 other breast cancer advocates in an office-to-office drive to jump-start the conversation about screening for breast cancer – our need to improve access to current technology that is saving the lives of women today, and to invest in the next generation of technology that will save the lives of our children.
When breast cancer is detected early, the five-year survival rate is 98 percent. Later diagnoses lead to larger tumors, more advanced cancers and lower chances for survival.
We need to develop technologies and screening approaches that are more specific, more personalized and more predictive. We must ensure that research fits within a broader roadmap that will help guide the discovery and delivery of the new screening technologies to patients.
To help build this understanding, we have asked the Obama administration to report on the government’s investment in new technology. With a clear understanding of where we are on the road to discovery, we can improve our chances of reaching our destination.
We must get screening right to save more lives.
SARAH BOWEN
President
Chattanooga Affiliate
Susan G. Komen for the Cure
Connect numbers to find war toll
“We will never know how many … lives were saved by” the atomic bombs dropped on Japan in 1945, a recent editorial said.
I know I am not unique, as I have pieced this information together from readily available sources.
The approximate number of Japanese killed by the bombs and the long-term effects of overexposure to radiation: 500,000.
The number of Allied dead anticipated in the event of an invasion: 1,000,000.
The number of Japanese dead anticipated in the event of an invasion: 7,000,000.
Net gain in lives saved: 7,500,000 – about 87 percent of them Japanese.
Now you know, too.
I assume that editorial was written by the same person who, in 2008, informed your readers that “Stalin broke his pact with Hitler” in 1941 and started a war against Nazi Germany.
JOSEPH A. REHYANSKY