SAGINAW, Mich. (WNEM) – Just in time for breast cancer awareness month, a local hospital is showing off an important new tool in the battle against the disease.
It’s a mammography screening center on wheels.
About one in eight women will be diagnosed with breast cancer during their lifetime. As any medical expert will tell you, early detection gives you your best chance of surviving breast cancer.
On Thursday, Ascension St. Mary’s in Saginaw showed TV5 its new mobile mammography 3-D breast cancer screening center.
The center is being deployed to address what Ascension calls an “unusually high mortality rate” for those with breast cancer in the mid, northern and thumb regions of Michigan.
Hospital officials say the mobile breast cancer screening center provides the same high-quality mammography screenings that an individual would get at a hospital imaging center.
While mammograms do not prevent breast cancer, they can detect it about five years earlier than a self-exam.
Dr. Christopher Garces with Ascension St. Mary’s called it an amazing tool that will benefit so many people, “It’s very important that patients get their screening mammograms.”
The hospital says it’s planned a monthly schedule for the mobile mammography screening center with stops in Birch Run, Chesaning, Frankenmuth, Oscoda, Vassar, and several Genesee County locations.
The hospital says the screening center will also be available for community health fairs and businesses that schedule a visit for work sites.
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