Arizona has the lowest cancer rate in the nation, but more than 1,000 women in the state will die from breast cancer because of late detection.
The Susan G. Komen For The Cure pushes for a cure for breast cancer. Until then, members push awareness.
"It's worth your life," said foundation board member Lynn Kastella, who is a breast cancer survivor after a mammogram found a lump in 1998.
"I was never sick a day in my life, I could not feel any lumps, the only way that I really found out that I had breast cancer was through my annual mammogram, which I was very faithful about getting," Kastella said.
Half of breast cancer cases in Arizona will be discovered too late. The Arizona Department of Health Services reports that more than 1,000 women are expected to die from the disease this year because of late detection.
"We don't want to give the false impression that people are not at risk, because the tragedy is that so many people don't get their screenings and they don't detect cancers early.
"By the time they have symptoms, get checked out, it's much harder to manage," said Wayne Tormala, chief of Arizona Department of Health Services Bureau of Tobacco and Chronic Disease.
Tormala said that the department seeks new ways to warn people that they need regular screenings.
- Women should get annual mammograms starting at 40.
- Men should get prostate exams every one to two years after 45.
- Men and women over 50 need a colonoscopy every 10 years.
"Get in, know what you've got, so something about it," Tormala said.
"I've always been like clockwork in getting through my annual testing and whatever I had to do. Thank God, or I wouldn't be here," Kastella laughed.
The Arizona Department of Health Services Bureau of Tobacco and Chronic Disease has set up a survey to get feedback on the best early detection methods.
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