HHC launches mammogram campaign

New York City’s Health and Hospitals Corporation (HHC) has a little or no-cost gift for the women in your life - a mammogram.
HHC launched the public awareness campaign to encourage women over 40-years-old to seek an annual mammogram at HHC hospitals or community health centers.
The citywide campaign will feature multi-language television, print and radio advertising that use HHC doctors and staff and highlight the theme - one in every eight women will be diagnosed with breast cancer.
The public is urged to call 3-1-1 or visit www.nyc.gov/hhc to learn where they can get the life-saving screenings.
According to the American Cancer Society, one woman in eight will develop invasive breast cancer in her lifetime. If detected early, figures show that the five-year survival rate exceeds 96 percent.
The City Health Department reports breast cancer kills about 1,260 in New York City every year and yet 23 percent of 40-and-over women have not had a recent mammogram.
“There is no better way to say ‘I care’ in any language than to help make a screening appointment at little or no cost for your mother, daughter, sister, aunt, girlfriend or grandmother,” said HHC President Alan Aviles. “An annual mammogram is the best method for the early detection of breast cancer and it helps to save lives,” he said.
HHC offers lifesaving mammograms at little or no cost all year long at the following facilities in Queens:
Elmhurst Hospital Center, at 79-01 Broadway in Elmhurst. Call 718-334-3318.
Queens Hospital Center, at 82-68 164th Street in Jamaica. Call 718-883-4509.
All HHC facilities work closely with the Cancer Services Program Partnership to extend no-cost mammograms to women who qualify.
HHC invested nearly $3.5 million during Fiscal Year 2006 to build ten state of the art mammography centers at its hospitals and community health centers and performed nearly 90,000 mammograms during 2007.
As a result, significantly more cancers have been diagnosed at an earlier stage when treatment is more effective and prognosis much more hopeful.
For more information about HHC, visit www.nyc.gov/hhc.