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Speaker 1: Well, free breast screening is coming to remote Territory communities

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Speaker 1: with Millie the Mobile Screening Bus starting its annual trip

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Speaker 1: this week. But the bus is going to be at

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Speaker 1: Parliament House for screening by appointment well, I believe up

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Speaker 1: until the second of May this Friday. Now joining me

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Speaker 1: on the line to tell us a little bit more

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Speaker 1: about the wonderful work that Millie the Mobile Screening Bus does.

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Speaker 1: It is doctor Doctor Arnold, Doctor Lauren Arnold, I should

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Speaker 1: say from breastscreen INTI, good morning to you. I seem

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Speaker 1: to be having some issues there with the phone line.

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Speaker 1: Hopefully I am able to get her Doctor Lauren Arnold,

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Speaker 1: good morning to you. No, I'm not too sure why

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Speaker 1: that is not working. We will give that another go

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Speaker 1: and hopefully be able to get her on the line.

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Speaker 1: But yes, we're going to be finding out a little

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Speaker 1: bit more about breascreen NTE and the wonderful work that

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Speaker 1: Millie does into the communities. Krystal will just make sure

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Speaker 1: we're able to get back on the line in just

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Speaker 1: a moment's time. Now, plenty of messages continuing to flow

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Speaker 1: through today, keep those coming. I'll just read a couple

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Speaker 1: of them out for you while we wait to Oh,

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Speaker 1: hang on, we've got her already, I believe joining me

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Speaker 1: on the line right now. It is Dr Arnold from

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Speaker 1: Breastscreen and t good morning to you. All right, I'm

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Speaker 1: not too sure while we are having issues with this

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Speaker 1: phone line. Unfortunately, we just seem to be having some

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Speaker 1: problems being able to get her on the line. There

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Speaker 1: we go, hopefully, I've got it now, doctor Lauren Arnold,

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Speaker 1: Do I have you on the line.

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Speaker 2: I'm still here.

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Speaker 1: I'm so sorry about that. Yes, thank you so very

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Speaker 1: much for being patient. Not too sure what's going on

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Speaker 1: with that phone? Lovely to talk to you. I reckon

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Speaker 1: it will be the only glitch that you have.

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Speaker 2: Lauren.

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Speaker 1: Tell me a little bit more about where Milly is

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Speaker 1: going to be heading to over this trip.

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Speaker 2: Okay, So Milly goes out in alternate years in alternate directions.

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Speaker 2: So this year is an odd year, so it's down

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Speaker 2: to Central Australia. The beginning part of her trip's generally

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Speaker 2: the same. We start at Parliament House for a week

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Speaker 2: and that is to iron out the glitches. So a

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Speaker 2: GLICI is what we expect this week and we try

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Speaker 2: and find any faults or problems while we're here this

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Speaker 2: week and fix them while we're still in town, and

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Speaker 2: then off to belle Ewan, Bachelor, Adelaide, River, Daily River,

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Speaker 2: Pine Creek, Timber Creek, Catherine, and then from Catherine it's

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Speaker 2: keeping on down south Bora, Lula, Lieutenant Creek, Tea Tree, Hermannsburg.

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Speaker 2: You endmu Hearts, range Youlara, and then a short stin

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Speaker 2: skin Alice Springs itself. We do have a permanent office

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Speaker 2: in Alice Springs, but we've give them a bit of

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Speaker 2: a hand on those years when the bus goes down south.

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Speaker 1: It is wonderful that Milly does head right around the

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Speaker 1: northern territory. I think it's a fantastic thing to do.

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Speaker 1: How like, how many women do you generally have sort

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Speaker 1: of turn up to come and get their breast screens

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Speaker 1: when they are in those different locations.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, Over the course of the nine months that Melle's

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Speaker 2: on the road, we get about a thousand women who

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Speaker 2: come to screen, but we know there are many more

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Speaker 2: living in the remote and very remote areas who we

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Speaker 2: don't get to, who don't hear about us or don't

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Speaker 2: have the opportunity. About a quarter of the NT population

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Speaker 2: is remote and very remote, and the thousands is not

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Speaker 2: a quarter of our screening population, so we really hope

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Speaker 2: we will take the opportunity to come to where Mellie

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Speaker 2: is part and have a screening mammogram.

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Speaker 1: Now I know for a lot of people listening this morning,

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Speaker 1: they'll be keen to find out a little bit more

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Speaker 1: about the bus being at Parliament House as well up

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Speaker 1: until Friday. Is that correct?

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Speaker 2: Yes, so Parliament House is pretty for straightforward. If women

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Speaker 2: are interested, they can call one three two zero five

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Speaker 2: zero for an appointment and speak to our office stackhill

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Speaker 2: them in. For the remote areas, it's generally a matter

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Speaker 2: of either contacting the office on that same number one

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Speaker 2: three two zero five zero or their remote health clinics.

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Speaker 2: So mostly our bookings are done through the health clinics

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Speaker 2: when really goes out, rather than through the office. But

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Speaker 2: anyone at the office can give them a hand to

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Speaker 2: figure it out for their own area.

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Speaker 1: And how important is it that women do make sure

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Speaker 1: that they have a regular breast screen.

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Speaker 2: I think for these remote and very remote women it's

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Speaker 2: actually more important they get to the bus while the

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Speaker 2: bus is there. I think it's an opportunity that they

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Speaker 2: can take up to get all their health screening done

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Speaker 2: at the clinic in one go, there's a vical screen,

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Speaker 2: talk about any other screening needs that they might have,

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Speaker 2: and get their mammogram done. We recommend all women over

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Speaker 2: the age of forty, but particularly those women between fifty

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Speaker 2: and seventy five, have a mammogram every two years. We

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Speaker 2: know that most breast cancer in Australia is diagnosed in

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Speaker 2: women in that age range fifty to seventy five, with

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Speaker 2: the majority around about the sixty year old mark. So

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Speaker 2: we'd really like particularly those women not to miss their mammogram.

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Speaker 2: And that's the main message I would have for the

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Speaker 2: remotion very remote women. It's not like you can just

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Speaker 2: phone up and make an appointment and come to Casarina

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Speaker 2: like someone who lives in Darwin. So if the bus

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Speaker 2: is out there for a week, really make an effort

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Speaker 2: to get there. And we know that women make an

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Speaker 2: enormous effort, you know, sometimes they'll rent a minibus and

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Speaker 2: come with their friends or community members and travel forth

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Speaker 2: to six hours just to get to where Millie's parked.

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Speaker 2: So we know people do make the effort.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, and it is such an important thing

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Speaker 1: to do. Doctor Arnold, talk me through you know the

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Speaker 1: survival rates when people do have have their cancer detected early.

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Speaker 1: It is incredibly important, isn't it.

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Speaker 2: It's really important. So sixty percent of the cancers that

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Speaker 2: we detect via mammographic screening up early cancers, so they're small,

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Speaker 2: generally less than two centimeters so about the size of

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Speaker 2: your thumbnail, and they have not been there for very long.

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Speaker 2: We're good at finding things early on mammogram and that's

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Speaker 2: the great benefit of mammogram overstay doing a breast check

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Speaker 2: yourself or a breast check with your GP, and those

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Speaker 2: women do extremely well. So the smaller and earlier the

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Speaker 2: cancer is when it's detected, the less treatment that is required,

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Speaker 2: so less surgery, less chemotherapy or radiotherapy, potentially no chemotherapy

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Speaker 2: if it's small and early enough, and we can get

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Speaker 2: those women back out to their communities and back into

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Speaker 2: their normal lives and living long, full, normal lifespans by

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Speaker 2: finding cancers when they're small and early.

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Speaker 1: How often should women have a mammogram or you know,

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Speaker 1: have their breast checked in a more formal way.

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Speaker 2: So for most women it will be every two years,

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Speaker 2: and for women who are remote and very unfortunately the

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Speaker 2: bus only goes to most places every two years, so

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Speaker 2: that is the only opportunity unless they're coming to Darwin.

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Speaker 2: For another reason, for some women who have strong risk

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Speaker 2: of breast cancer, and that's usually because they know that

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Speaker 2: in their family there's a gene that predisposes to breast cancer,

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Speaker 2: or they've got a very strong family history with lots

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Speaker 2: of relative close relatives who've had breast cancer. We will

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Speaker 2: recommend a mammogram every year, but those women know who

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Speaker 2: they are. We ask them questions when they come for

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Speaker 2: their first mammogram and highlight to them that they need

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Speaker 2: to be able to come into DAH and to have

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Speaker 2: a mammogram. On the alternatives if we recommend annual screening,

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Speaker 2: but for the majority of the population aged over forty,

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Speaker 2: a mammogram every two years is sufficient.

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Speaker 1: I understand that last year Breaststrain enty detected breast cancer

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Speaker 1: and fifty eight women in the Northern Territory. I mean

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Speaker 1: it goes to show you the work that you're doing

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Speaker 1: is so incredibly important, isn't it.

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Speaker 2: It is really important. So those fifty eight women were

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Speaker 2: about half the breast cancer cases that were detected in

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Speaker 2: the NT, so about half of them are detected through

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Speaker 2: a breast green and the other half are detected because

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Speaker 2: women go to their health clinic or their GP with

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Speaker 2: a symptom, with a lump or a nipple discharge, or

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Speaker 2: have noticed a change in the way their breast looks

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Speaker 2: or feel, And we certainly encourage women to remain self aware.

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Speaker 2: We're not saying that that's not important, but we know

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Speaker 2: that those breast cancers that are detected on a mammogram

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Speaker 2: are generally smaller and earlier than the cancers that are

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Speaker 2: detected because they present with a lump or another system

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Speaker 2: as sorry symptom. So we'd really like women to come

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Speaker 2: as often as we recommend not skip mammogram, because going

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Speaker 2: four years or five years between mammograms, you know, we're

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Speaker 2: not going to find that cast at one centimes. We're

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Speaker 2: going to find it at three or four centimeter.

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Speaker 1: And doctor Arnold, I know, and I'm pretty sure I've

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Speaker 1: asked you this in the past as well. It's the

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Speaker 1: age really that you know that people do need to

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Speaker 1: start having those mammograms. So I know you'd said obviously

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Speaker 1: those with the family history, the guidelines might be a

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Speaker 1: little bit different. But you know, some people say fifty

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Speaker 1: years old, other people say forty, what's the recommendation.

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Speaker 2: Yep. So if you look at the age at which

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Speaker 2: breast cancer occurs in the Australian population, it's mostly between

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Speaker 2: fifty to seventy five, and that's why we recommend that

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Speaker 2: that age group definitely screens under the age of fifty,

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Speaker 2: So between forty and fifty, certainly cancer occurs, it's much

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Speaker 2: less common, and you start to get into the are

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Speaker 2: we causing more anxiety doing more harm than good question?

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Speaker 2: Between forty and fifty, so women who are pre menopausals,

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Speaker 2: so generally those women under fifty have dense breast tissue.

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Speaker 2: Dense breast tissue on a mammogram means that the tissue

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Speaker 2: is white, and so is a breast cancer. So it's

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Speaker 2: simply harder to see a breast cancer when it's white

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Speaker 2: against white on a mammogram. Older women who are postmenopausal

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Speaker 2: tend to have less dense breast tissue as their breasts

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Speaker 2: change after menopause, and so it's easier to see a

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Speaker 2: cancer and statistically they're more likely to have a cancer

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Speaker 2: because that's the age group in which cancer occurs. So

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Speaker 2: how we are much better at our job in those

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Speaker 2: fifty to seventy five year old women. Again, over seventy five,

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Speaker 2: cancer is less likely. Cancer the breast is less likely,

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Speaker 2: and those older women, they tend to be afflicted with

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Speaker 2: other illnesses and other problems, and breast cancer is not

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Speaker 2: the most common problem or even the most common cancer.

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Speaker 2: So certainly fifty to seventy five is our target age group,

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Speaker 2: but we know that women age forty to fifty want

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Speaker 2: to screen, so we are open to women over the

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Speaker 2: age of forty. Under the age of forty, breast cancer

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Speaker 2: is so uncommon and mammograms are really not a great

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Speaker 2: test that we don't recommend it. We think we could

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Speaker 2: be just doing in more harm than good by exposing

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Speaker 2: you to X rays but not necessarily being able to

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Speaker 2: stay with confidence that there's no cancer there. And it's

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Speaker 2: an uncommon disease in that page group. So we don't

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Speaker 2: recommend screening under the age of forty with mammography, but

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Speaker 2: we would certainly recommend that those women self examine.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely well, doctor Lauren Arnold from Breast screen NT.

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Speaker 1: It is always wonderful to speak to you. Now, if

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Speaker 1: anybody's listening this morning and they're going, do you know

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Speaker 1: what I fall right into that category. I would like

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Speaker 1: to either you go from a mammogram or work out

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Speaker 1: my best option. What should they do?

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Speaker 2: So one three two zero five zero is the phone

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Speaker 2: number to make an appointment. If they're remote or very

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Speaker 2: remote and you want to know the bus schedule. It

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Speaker 2: is easiest to find our website just by googling so

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Speaker 2: nt Breast screen Bus will take you to the bus

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Speaker 2: schedule which is online. But if you can't find that,

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Speaker 2: just ring one three two zero five zero and our

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Speaker 2: staff will be very happy to talk you through it.

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Speaker 2: And equally, if you're not sure whether screening is right

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Speaker 2: for you, either ask our stuff or cr GP.

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Speaker 1: Great advice. Well, doctor Lauren Arnold, lovely to speak with

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Speaker 1: you this morning. Thank you so very much for your time.

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Speaker 2: Thanks for persisting, Katie, thank you