Screening for Breast Cancer - Essay Example

"Screening for Breast Cancer" is a perfect example of a paper on cancer.

Dear Aunty Sheila,

I hope this letter finds you in good health. I am writing to you with regard to your mammography tests, which I have been told you have been avoiding for quite some time. Let me begin by telling you that they are extremely important. Their importance rests on numerous reasons, all of which I will highlight, in the following letter. Since I have been learning about screening for breast cancer for the past few days, I would like it if you read the entire letter, and then make a decision about whether to get it taken or not.

            The main reason I am so concerned about your screening for breast cancer is that the absolute risk of getting breast cancer increases with age. For example, there is very little chance for a twenty-year-old to get cancer. However, since you are almost sixty years old, you are at a greater risk of getting breast cancer. In the next ten years from your age, one in twenty-six people gets cancer. This change in risk factor with age is due to the fact that certain hormonal processes, such as menstruation for females come to an end.

            There are also certain characteristics and choices of yours in life that pose a warning sign and make all of us concerned about your risks of acquiring breast cancer. First is the fact that you are happy with where you are. While that’s a good sign of being content with what you have, you have stayed in the same city your entire life, suggesting you are not really interested in physical activity. People who are not involved with some sort of physical activity at your age have an increased risk of getting breast cancer. Moreover, you are overweight and hence fall under the dark shade of obesity. Weight gain during the time between twenty and sixty years of age has been considered to be the primary cause of causing breast cancer. This is because women who are overweight tend to have greater levels of the female hormone, estrogen in their blood, which poses an increased risk for breast cancer. White women also tend to have a greater risk of breast cancer than other colored women or Asians and Hispanics. However, I do have some good news for you. Since you have already had two screening tests, it may indicate that you have lesser chances of getting cancer, and therefore are at a reduced risk. This is because proper and timely screening reduces the risk of having breast cancer progress to a severe level. Therefore, I think proper and timely screening is necessary to make you healthy.  

            Lastly, the fact that you have already gotten one false-positive result whilst screening for breast cancer is also kind of alarming and its why I am asking you to consider getting screened again. While you may have been told that you are safe the second time you went for mammography, many studies have suggested that people who have had false-positive results the first time are at an increased risk of getting breast cancer. This is because false positives are usually done for women who have greater breast density, that is the breast tissue has more mass or is heavier, and so do false negatives, especially in your case due to the obesity factor. The risk of exposure to radiation as well as the fact that mammography may not always be successful at detecting cancer is the main disadvantages of mammography.

            Despite all that I have mentioned in this letter, it is completely up to you whether or not you get breast cancer screening done. However, since I care about you as your daughter would, I want you to stay healthy and therefore, get a screening test done. Hope you will take my sincere reflections seriously. Do reply to what you think about my proposition.

With all my love,

Yours,