Radiation therapy helped Meg Owen fight off Hodgkin's Lymphoma twice in her early 20's but research shows it also increases her chance of getting breast cancer at a young age.
"At the time it was, 'Meg we're going to save your life' and that was really my only concern," Meg says.
Now, she must stay vigilant to remain cancer-free.
The Children's Oncology Group recommends initiating breast cancer screening at the age of 25 or eight years after their radiation with an annual mammogram and a breast MRI.
"If we can diagnose breast cancer in an early stage in these women, their outcomes are quite good," says Dr. Kevin Oeffinger.
Researchers at the Sloan Kettering Cancer Center surveyed over 550 of these high-risk women to see if they were aware of the guidelines and whether they affected their screening habits.
"We anticipated that because many of these women are unaware of the risks and their physicians might not be aware of the risks that the breast cancer screening rates would be low, but they were much lower than we even expected," says Dr. Oeffinger.
The study, to be published tomorrow in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), found that in women ages 25 to 39, only 36 per cent had a mammogram in the previous two years and 47 per cent had never had a mammogram.
In these high-risk women between the ages of 40 and 50, just 52 per cent were being regularly screened, although an annual mammogram is recommended for all women over the age of 40.
Researchers found that raising awareness of the guidelines could make a difference.
"If a physician recommended screening for these women, especially those women between the ages of 25 and 39, they were three times more likely to have a mammogram than those women that didn't have a physician recommendation," he says.
"For me, knowledge is power, and knowing that I am at higher risk, the screening actually gives me peace of mind," says Meg.
Having beaten cancer before, Meg Owen knows an annual mammogram may help ensure she would be able to do it again.
With a report from CTV British Columbia's Dr. Rhonda Low
