Elevate Your Health Colorado The best option for beating breast cancer

For many women approaching age 40, life only gets busier. Juggling jobs, family responsibilities, and household chores, we find little time for ourselves. Even potentially life-saving measures, such as regular mammograms, sometimes get overlooked.

Jean Redd, 49, a radiology supervisor at Kaiser Permanente Colorado, knows this type of woman well. “We call them our MVPs, or Missing Valuable Persons,” she explains. “MVPs are a select group of women who have gone at least 24 months without having a mammogram.”

The MVP designation is part of a larger initiative to increase breast cancer screenings called Pink Promise. This program uses electronic records to track overdue patients and personal phone calls to remind these high-risk women to schedule a screening. It also posts electronic alerts, so if overdue patients seek treatment for another concern, such as an ankle sprain, the health care team can remind them again about a screening.

‘Do as I say, not as I do’
Launching the MVP program was a hectic time for Redd. “One day in the ladies’ room, I happened to see Dr. Deb Shaw, one of our fabulous radiologists. We were chatting about how busy the MVP program kept us, and that’s when I admitted I was one of them – I was an MVP,” Redd recalls. “I was so focused on helping other women, I realized I had gone nearly three years without having a mammogram myself.”

She also remembers her friend’s reaction to that statement. “I’ll never forget the look in Dr. Shaw’s eyes and her stern instruction" to get a mammogram, Redd says.

‘She saved my life’
Redd did exactly that. Looking back, she now credits Dr. Shaw with saving her life. “My mammogram detected a very aggressive stage 2 breast cancer,” Redd recalls. That was back in February 2007. During the following five months, she underwent a lumpectomy, four rounds of chemotherapy, and 32 radiation treatments.

Today, Redd wants women to learn from her experience. “Not only was I too busy recruiting other non-compliant women for mammograms, I also had a family history of breast cancer and my doctors encouraged me to get annual screenings beginning at age 30,” Redd says. “I just didn’t think getting cancer would happen to me, especially at age 45. But it did, and now I want other women to know it can happen to them.”

Doctor’s advice
“Mammograms enable us to find cancer in its earliest stages – before women or their doctors can feel any changes, like a lump,” says Karin L. Kempe, MD, director of clinical prevention in the department of Population and Prevention Services at Kaiser Permanente Colorado. “The survival rate for cancer caught in its earliest stages is approximately 97 percent. There’s a huge difference in survival rates between cancers found early and those that have spread. Early detection truly is a woman’s best protection.”

Decreasing barriers
Dr. Kempe realizes some women delay having mammograms due to fear. “I want women to realize that regular mammograms can bring peace of mind. Even in the group of women who are overdue for screenings, most studies are normal, or their cancers have been caught at a curable stage,” she says.

Dr. Kempe also knows some women delay having mammograms because they fear they may hurt. “A mammogram can feel like a pinch – for about 30 seconds while the X-ray is taken. But it shouldn’t be too uncomfortable,” she says. “If women have had trouble in the past, I want them to tell our mammography staff so we can work with them to make it a more comfortable experience.”

Seeing progress
Thanks to personal outreach to women who are overdue for their mammograms, Kaiser Permanente Colorado has noticed a dramatic increase in women receiving regular screenings. A recent study from another Kaiser Permanente region found that mammography rates jumped from 63 percent to more than 80 percent when programs to remind women to be screened were put into place.

These rates are especially noteworthy when compared to a recent study by the National Cancer Institute, which noticed a decrease in mammography rates this past decade after rising dramatically in the 1980s and 1990s. Today, it reports that nationally only 66 percent of women age 40 and older get annual mammograms.

If the entire country’s mammography rate could reach 80 percent, it’s estimated that as many as 25,000 additional cases of breast cancer could be detected each year.

To learn more about the importance of early detection, visit KaiserPermanente.org.

Dr. Kempe received her medical degree from the University of Rochester. She completed her internship and residency at Duke University School of Medicine. 

Scheduling is quick and easy

If you are a Kaiser Permanente member, the Radiology department will schedule an appointment for you at the Medical Office of your choice.

Just stop by any Radiology department or call 303-338-3456, option 3, (TTY for the deaf, hard of hearing, or speech impaired: 1-800-659-2656) weekdays, from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.

What location and time works best for you?

Mammograms are currently offered at the following Kaiser Permanente Medical Offices:

Arapahoe, Baseline, East Denver, Franklin, Lakewood, Smoky Hill, Southwest, Westminster, Wheat Ridge.

Appointment times:

• Monday-Friday — 8 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. at all Medical Offices listed above.

• Saturday appointments — Arapahoe, East Denver, Lakewood and Westminster. (Ask Radiology for specific times).

• Same-day appointments — All locations above have some same-day openings. Check with Radiology. You may be able to get your mammogram that same day.

• Exempla Good Samaritan Medical Center. Call 303-689-4180 (TTY: 1-800-659-2656) from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. for details.