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November 20, 2009

Mammograms: The proof is in the nurse practitioner, she says

By Tim Krohn

SPRINGFIELD — When Julie Kircher heard of the new recommendations calling for fewer mammograms she had an instant, personal reaction.

“I was just horrified by those recommendations,” said Kircher, a family nurse practitioner at Immanuel St. Joseph’s Springfield Medical Center.

In February, at age 41, Kircher went to her family physician, Dr. Annette Schmit-Cline, in Springfield and got her digital mammogram. It found a stage 2 cancerous tumor.

“It wasn’t on my mammogram at 40, but it was the next year. If I’d have skipped a year ...” she said, referring to the new recommendations that women not only wait until 50 to get their first mammogram, but to get them only every two years.

Kircher chose to get annual mammograms since she was 35 because a maternal aunt had breast cancer.

While the panel’s recommendations say women with a family history of cancer should get earlier, annual mammograms, Kircher said 80 percent or more of cancer cases are found in women without a family history.

“The largest number of diagnoses are in people who don’t have a family history.”

Kircher also disagrees with the panel’s recommendation that doctors stop teaching patients self-exams.

“There’s a lot of women who find changes in their breast with self breast exams. If you know something’s different, you can go in.”

Kircher had surgery and reconstruction at the Mayo Clinic in March and did her chemotherapy at Mankato ISJ with Dr. Kevin Cockerill.

Today she is back working full time and feeling well.

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