Hologic, Inc. today launched the Back to Screening campaign encouraging women to schedule their annual mammograms now that healthcare facilities across the nation are re-opening their doors following closures due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
At the start of the pandemic, many health officials, professional societies and patient advocacy groups released guidance urging women to delay routine mammograms. As a result, appointments for breast, cervical and colorectal screenings in March were down 86% to 94% compared to previous years.i The National Cancer Institute recently predicted 10,000 more people in the United States will die in the next decade from breast or colorectal cancer because of delayed screening and treatment due to the COVID-19 pandemic.ii Breast imaging facilities have since begun accepting patients for routine mammograms, however, a recent survey conducted by Hologic found that 27% of compliant women plan to either skip or delay their mammogram in 2020.iii
“It is impossible to overstate the massive impact the COVID-19 pandemic continues to make on the health and well-being of the global population, especially when we consider the potential long-term implications of delayed or canceled preventive screenings, such as mammograms,” said Pete Valenti, Hologic’s Division President, Breast & Skeletal Health Solutions. “In response, breast health providers have gone to great lengths to establish protocols to ensure patient safety as women return to screening. As the world leader in mammography, Hologic is committed to doing our part by reminding women of the importance of re-scheduling their exams to detect breast cancer as early as possible, which could save lives.”
Hologic’s Back to Screening campaign features a page where visitors can sign up for a reminder to schedule their annual mammograms. In doing so, they will be given the opportunity to enter a sweepstake to win tickets to a private, virtual performance by nine-time GRAMMY® Award winner and breast cancer survivor Sheryl Crow, who has served as the spokesperson for Hologic’s Genius® 3D Mammography® exam for nearly five years. The Genius exam is the only mammogram clinically proven and FDA approved as superior for all women, including those with dense breasts, compared to 2D mammography alone.iv,v,vi,vii
“When I was diagnosed with breast cancer, a routine mammogram caught my breast cancer early, and I am here – and healthy – today, because I made my health a priority and got screened,” said Crow. “It’s important to me to share my story so that other women will do the same, especially now, when so many facilities are opening their doors after shutting down at the start of the pandemic, and so many women need to get back on track.”
Women can visit BacktoScreening.com to complete an appointment reminder and enter the sweepstakes from August 3 through September 20, 2020. The private, virtual performance by Sheryl Crow will take place on Friday, October 2, 2020, to kick off Breast Cancer Awareness Month.
The Genius® 3D Mammography® exam (also known as the Genius® exam) is only available on a Hologic® 3D Mammography® system. It consists of a 2D and 3D® image set, where the 2D image can be either an acquired 2D image or a 2D image generated from the 3D® image set. There are more than 6,000 Hologic 3D Mammography® systems in use in the United States alone, so women have convenient access to the Genius exam.
i https://ehrn.org/delays-in-preventive-cancer-screenings-during-covid-19-pandemic/
ii Sharpless NE. COVID-19 and cancer. Science. 2020 Jun 19;368(6497):1290. doi:10.1126/science.abd3377
iii Survey: COVID Impact on Patients, Topline Findings: Wave 2, June 2020
iv Results from Friedewald, SM, et al. “Breast cancer screening using tomosynthesis in combination with digital mammography.” JAMA 311.24 (2014): 2499-2507; a multi-site (13), non-randomized, historical control study of 454,000 screening mammograms investigating the initial impact the introduction of the Hologic Selenia Dimensions on screening outcomes. Individual results may vary. The study found an average 41% increase and that 1.2 (95% CI: 0.8-1.6) additional invasive breast cancers per 1000 screening exams were found in women receiving combined 2D FFDM and 3D™ mammograms acquired with the Hologic 3D Mammography™ System versus women receiving 2D FFDM mammograms only.
v Friedewald SM, Rafferty EA, Rose SL, Durand MA, Plecha DM, Greenberg JS, Hayes MK, Copit DS, Carlson KL, Cink TM, Carke LD, Greer LN, Miller DP, Conant EF, Breast Cancer Screening Using Tomosynthesis in Combination with Digital Mammography, JAMA June 25, 2014.
vi Bernardi D, Macaskill P, Pellegrini M, et al. Breast cancer screening with tomosynthesis (3D mammography) with acquired or synthetic 2D mammography compared with 2D mammography alone (STORM-2): a population-based prospective study. Lancet Oncol. 2016 Aug;17(8):1105-13.
vii FDA submissions P080003, P080003/S001, P080003/S004, P080003/S005