University Daily Kansan
Thursday, May 4. 1978
9
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Speculation over breast X-rays eased by Med Center guidelines
By DENISE RUPP
Staff Writer
Three years have passed since the public began hearing speculations that radiation from breast X-rays might cause the very cancer it was being used to detect.
Although the Breast Diseases Detection Center at the University of Kansas Medical Center continues to X-ray approximately 7,000 women a year, it does so in compliance with the guidelines of the National Cancer Institute.
Each center recruited 10,000 women for a five-year program that yearly breast cancer survivors were evaluated and demonstrate that large numbers of early breast cancers could be found in this
The Med Center has one of the 27 breast cancer detection centers established in 1973 by the National Cancer Institute and the American Cancer Society.
IN THE 54 years since 1973, less than 10 percent of the women have dropped out of the program, Beth Morse, project coor- tors, said. The number ranges have been made in the procedures used.
The Cancer Institute recommended that X-rays be used to screen women without symptoms of breast disease only if they were more than 50 years old. The largest percentage of cancer occurs in older women.
The most important change came last year when the National Cancer Institute adopted guidelines for the use of mammogram.
It is also recommended that women under 50 should have X-rays if they had a high risk of developing cancer. The high risk group was defined to include women who had previously had breast cancer or whose mothers or sisters had the disease.
There are other characteristics that increase a woman's risk of getting breast cancer, but they are not mentioned in the guidelines. The most significant of these are the first child after the age of 60, never having children and having a benign breast tumor.
Court rules Westergren is competent
The Douglas County Circuit Court ruled yesterday that Eugene Westergreen, a 51-year-old Lawrence man, was competent to conduct a defection with the murder of Vanessa Stern.
Westerglen is charged with the beating death and attempted rape of the 85-year-old woman.
The ruling was made after a report on Westergreen's mental competency to stand trial was completed at the Larned State Hospital.
Mike Malone, Douglas County attorney,
said that he was satisfied with the report.
He said, "It was very thorough. Whether I answer with it or not is a different situation."
WESTERGREN HAS been held at the Larned State Hospital since February. This is the second evaluation Westergren has undergone there. Malone said that the first evaluation was not used because Westergren was in the midst of medication at the time of the examination.
About Westergreen's mental illness, Malone said. "We never labeled him mentally ill, except by the definition of an alcoholic. He is definitely an alcoholic."
Westerglen will be taken to the Topela State Hospital for tests to determine whether he is a proper candidate for the truth serum sodium amobarbital. The serum to be used to see whether Westerglen is suppressing information about the murder.
"Westerner has a keen desire to have it
Malan said. "Otherwise it couldn't be as
atax."
MALONE SAID, "There is no precedent about whether the testimony can be used in court. It's an attempt to both sides to try to find out more about the case."
Westergreen, who lists no present address, is being held in the Douglas County jail without bond, which is possible because of a law that prevents the state's first-degree murder statute.
A hearing has been scheduled for May 10 to present evidence to be used in charging.
A source who asked not to be identified informed newsmen that the drivers voted to walk off their jobs because they had failed to agree on a new contract. The vote in favor of the strike reportedly was 189 to 86. A union spokesman refused to comment.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) - Bakey truck drivers were expected to strike yesterday at midnight Kansas City grocery stores, the team calls by members of their Teamsmaster units.
Bakery drivers vote to strike
LARRY BAKER, the physician who directs the center, said that since the guidelines were released, the center had attempted to continue yearly examinations of all 10,000 women but had eliminated the number of women who did not meet the guidelines.
live contract between the local and all cake and bread bakery companies in the city.
More than 300 drivers would be involved in the walkout, the source said. He added that members of Baker and Confectionery expected to honor picket lines of the drivers.
He estimated that of the 7,000 women who have continued to receive the X-rays, 5,000 were over the age of 50 and other 2,000 were younger women in the high risk group.
A meat cutters strike of Kansas City area chains last month was in still effect yetness.
Records must be kept for each woman under the age of 50 who receives a mammogram, he said, and its use must be justified to the Institute.
The guidelines are not law and they apply only to the 27 centers, Baker said. A woman who wants an X-ray can get one from her physician, regardless of her age.
However, he said, only breast detection centers are required by the cancer institute to monitor their radiation levels. Therefore, because many physicians do not know what dosage she is receiving. Because hospitals and private physicians are not involved in mass screening programs, Baker said, their doses are usually higher than those at the center.
The risk caused by the radiation has not created as many problems as the confusion resulting from the controversy over the use of radiation. Baker said.
BAKER SAID the dosage received by women at the Med Center was less than one rad. This is one-fourth of the original amount used for mammography and is well below the limit allowed by the cancer institute.
"When a woman can have an X-ray one year and not the next," he said, "how do you know if she has cancer?"
He said a consent form used at the center was helping to educate women about the procedure by explaining the guidelines and risks involved.
"We don't need their signatures on the consent forms because the procedure is dangerous," Baker said. "It's just so we can keep them safe." We've told women what they're getting."
According to figures published by the National Cancer Institute, 95 percent of all women not involved in a screening program find their own cancer after noticing changes in their breasts. These are generally advanced cancers.
AMONG WOMEN who are being checked yearly, 44 percent of all cancers are discovered by mammography before any physical changes are evident.
Baker said there had never been a case of breast cancer caused by the dosage of radiation used for mammography. The first studies in which women got breast cancer after being exposed to radiation were made and have been affected by fallout from an atomic bomb.
"For one thing, that was an entirely different kind of radiation," he said, "and it also involved amounts of radiation hundreds of times larger than those we use."
There is no question about the use of X-rays on a woman who has symptoms of breast disease, nor is there a risk involved in breast screening. There are no symptoms one mammogram. Baker said.
"We could give every woman a mammogram for five years," he said. "Nobody thinks that would be a risk. The question is what would happen if we did one every year on all the women in the country for the rest of their lives.
"It's a question of whether the benefits outweigh the risks, and we don't know the answer."
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