Center with a cause

By JOHN STANG/Daily Inter Lake

Seventy-three percent of women 40 or older nationwide get mammograms annually.

And that percentage has been dropping slightly in recent years, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control.

Meanwhile, an estimated 43 percent of women 40 and older in Flathead County are getting annual mammograms, said Drs. Loren Rourke and Debra Accord, two physicians who moved to Kalispell this year to staff Kalispell's Regional Medical Center's fledgling breast cancer facility.

No one really knows why Flathead County's figures are significantly lower than the national average.

Rourke and Accord can only speculate - maybe a lack of knowledge, money or access.

If women are not getting mammograms because of the cost, Kalispell Regional has programs to help pay for the exams. Such people should contact Jana Rupp, the hospital's director of imaging services at 751-7517.

To help women get mammograms, people can donate to a Women's Wellness Fund at Northwest Healthcare Foundation at 751-6930.

Kalispell Regional recruited Accord and Rourke for its $1.3 million, two-story, 3,000-square-foot Bass Center-Breast Surgical Oncology Center, which is under construction next to the hospital's main building.

Right now, Accord and Rourke work out of separate offices near the hospital while they wait for the center to be finished in the fall of 2008.

When a woman is diagnosed with breast cancer, she will likely have to deal with a surgeon, an imagery facility, a pathologist, a medical oncologist and a radiation oncologist, as well as others. In most cities, these functions are usually are housed in separate buildings - frequently not close to each other.

A basic concept behind Kalispell Regional's new facility is to consolidate all those functions - plus routine checkups - into one spot for the patient's benefit.

Rourke is a surgeon specializing in breast cancer, who moved to Kalispell from the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas. Accord is a breast imaging specialist who moved from Wichita, Kan.

Both were attracted to specializing in breast cancer because that field requires extensive contact with patients - a facet that both thrive on.

"Breast cancer is an emotionally challenging disease. … I don't know any woman who hasn't thought about it," Rourke said.

And it can affect men too.

So far in 2007, 2,030 new cases of breast cancer have been diagnosed in men, the National Breast Cancer Coalition said. About 450 men are expected to die this year from breast cancer.

Breast cancer is the second or third most likely cause of death among women who suffer cancer, depending on which statistics are cited.

A woman has a one-in-eight chance of getting invasive breast cancer and a one-in-33 chance of dying a breast cancer-related death, the American Cancer Society said.

The National Breast Cancer Coalition estimated that 240,510 new cases of invasive and in situ breast cancer will be diagnosed in women this year in the United States.

Most breast cancers begin in the milk glands or ducts. Invasive means the cancer has broken out the ducts and glands to elsewhere in the breast. In situ means the cancer remains in the milk glands or ducts.

About 40,460 women are expected to die this year from breast cancer.

The federal Centers for Disease Control estimates that routine mammograms have trimmed breast cancer deaths by 20 percent for women in their 40s, and by 20 percent to 35 percent for women ages 50 to 69. Exams are recommended for these women every one or two years.

About 94 percent of breast cancers are found in women 40 and older, according to federal figures.

Reporter John Stang may be reached at 758-4429 or by e-mail at jstang@dailyinterlake.com