Eradicate Breast Cancer

Senate Bill No. 1873 authored by Sen. Trillanes, as well as SBN 2114 authored by Sen. Santiago and SBN 354 authored by Sen. Legarda will all further compound and aggravate the breast cancer epidemic in the Philippines.

By institutionalizing mammography through legislation and funding from the national budget, the Senate is ignorant of the recent long-term studies that have shown the unreliability of this procedure which has caused considerable over diagnosis and over-treatment of countless breast cancer victims.

Without having evaluated the success or failures of breast cancer programs of the Department of Health and the Philippine Health Corporation, these proposed Senate Bills are acting on the presumption that subjecting women to periodic annual screening mammography will address this catastrophic public health crisis.

We call on our Senators to junk all of the above Senate Bills and instead focus legislative action for the identification and elimination of environmental causes of breast cancer, thereby stopping women from getting afflicted with this unacceptable disease which does not have to happen.

..................................................................................................................................Kindly view the PBCN's Position Paper presented at the Senate Committee on Health's Public Hearing on 20 May 2014. http://pbcn.blogspot.com/2014/05/pbcn-position-on-senate-bills-on-breast.html