Fla. Congresswoman Pushes Cancer Legislation After Surviving Own Battle

March 23, 2009 — -- Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., introduces new federal legislation today that calls for a national breast-cancer education campaign that targets women between the ages of 15 and 39. The bill holds special significance for the 42-year-old because she quietly and successfully battled breast cancer in the past year.

Schultz's Breast Cancer Education and Awareness Act focuses specifically on young women.

"Young women do think we're invincible; and we don't think about it," Schultz said on "Good Morning America" today. "And it will focus on educating physicians. So many times physicians blow off a young woman when she comes in with symptoms or warning signs because they don't focus on that young women can get breast cancer."

The numbers tell a different story: Of the projected 182,460 new cases of breast cancer in women in 2008, according to the American Cancer Society, an estimated 10,000 of them, or about 5.5 percent, are younger than 40.

The risk of reoccurrence is greater in women younger than 35, according to a study from researchers at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston.

They found that younger women had a better chance of avoiding a return of the disease if they had a mastectomy along with radiation rather than breast-conserving therapy or mastectomy alone. The findings were similar regardless of how advanced the cancer was.

It's a mantra that has been etched into the minds of many women: Get your first mammogram at age 40.

"The focus for young women is on 40," Schultz said. "It's a fixation on 40."

It resonated with Schultz, who, at 41 and two months before her cancer diagnosis, had her first mammogram.

"It showed nothing," said Schultz, whose district includes parts of Broward and Miami-Dade counties.

But shortly after her routine checkup, the mother of three found something suspicious in December 2007.

"A little more than a year ago, I was doing a routine self-exam in the shower," she said. "[And I] did that occasionally. "[I] found a lump in my breast, at least what I thought was one [and] had my husband check it to make sure it was what I thought it was. A few days later, I went to the doctor. And then, the roller coaster began."