Senate Supports National Mammography Day - Women's Congressional Policy Institute

On July 22, the Senate approved, by unanimous consent, a resolution (S. Res. 407) designating October 15, 2004, as “National Mammography Day.” The Senate Judiciary Committee approved the resolution without objection on July 20.

Sponsored by Sen. Joseph Biden (D-DE), the resolution contains a number of findings, including:

According to the American Cancer Society, 215,990 women will be diagnosed with breast cancer in 2004, and 40,110 of these women will die from the disease;
African American women suffer a 30 percent greater mortality rate from breast cancer than white women and more than a 100 percent greater mortality rate from breast cancer than women from Hispanic, Asian, and American Indian populations;
The risk of breast cancer increases with age; a 70-year-old woman has twice as much of a chance of developing the disease than a 50-year-old woman;
Mammograms, when operated professionally at a certified facility, can provide safe screening and early detection of breast cancer in many women; and
Mammography is an excellent method for early detection of localized breast cancer, which has a five-year survival rate of more than 97 percent.