Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Well, free breast screening is coming to remote Territory communities
with Millie the Mobile Screening Bus starting its annual trip
this week. But the bus is going to be at
Parliament House for screening by appointment well, I believe up
until the second of May this Friday. Now joining me
on the line to tell us a little bit more
about the wonderful work that Millie the Mobile Screening Bus does.
(00:22):
It is doctor Doctor Arnold, Doctor Lauren Arnold, I should
say from breastscreen INTI, good morning to you. I seem
to be having some issues there with the phone line.
Hopefully I am able to get her Doctor Lauren Arnold,
good morning to you. No, I'm not too sure why
(00:43):
that is not working. We will give that another go
and hopefully be able to get her on the line.
But yes, we're going to be finding out a little
bit more about breascreen NTE and the wonderful work that
Millie does into the communities. Krystal will just make sure
we're able to get back on the line in just
a moment's time. Now, plenty of messages continuing to flow
(01:05):
through today, keep those coming. I'll just read a couple
of them out for you while we wait to Oh,
hang on, we've got her already, I believe joining me
on the line right now. It is Dr Arnold from
Breastscreen and t good morning to you. All right, I'm
not too sure while we are having issues with this
(01:27):
phone line. Unfortunately, we just seem to be having some
problems being able to get her on the line. There
we go, hopefully, I've got it now, doctor Lauren Arnold,
Do I have you on the line.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
I'm still here.
Speaker 1 (01:41):
I'm so sorry about that. Yes, thank you so very
much for being patient. Not too sure what's going on
with that phone? Lovely to talk to you. I reckon
it will be the only glitch that you have.
Speaker 2 (01:57):
Lauren.
Speaker 1 (01:58):
Tell me a little bit more about where Milly is
going to be heading to over this trip.
Speaker 2 (02:06):
Okay, So Milly goes out in alternate years in alternate directions.
So this year is an odd year, so it's down
to Central Australia. The beginning part of her trip's generally
the same. We start at Parliament House for a week
and that is to iron out the glitches. So a
GLICI is what we expect this week and we try
and find any faults or problems while we're here this
(02:27):
week and fix them while we're still in town, and
then off to belle Ewan, Bachelor, Adelaide, River, Daily River,
Pine Creek, Timber Creek, Catherine, and then from Catherine it's
keeping on down south Bora, Lula, Lieutenant Creek, Tea Tree, Hermannsburg.
You endmu Hearts, range Youlara, and then a short stin
(02:47):
skin Alice Springs itself. We do have a permanent office
in Alice Springs, but we've give them a bit of
a hand on those years when the bus goes down south.
Speaker 1 (02:56):
It is wonderful that Milly does head right around the
northern territory. I think it's a fantastic thing to do.
How like, how many women do you generally have sort
of turn up to come and get their breast screens
when they are in those different locations.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
Yeah, Over the course of the nine months that Melle's
on the road, we get about a thousand women who
come to screen, but we know there are many more
living in the remote and very remote areas who we
don't get to, who don't hear about us or don't
have the opportunity. About a quarter of the NT population
is remote and very remote, and the thousands is not
(03:32):
a quarter of our screening population, so we really hope
we will take the opportunity to come to where Mellie
is part and have a screening mammogram.
Speaker 1 (03:39):
Now I know for a lot of people listening this morning,
they'll be keen to find out a little bit more
about the bus being at Parliament House as well up
until Friday. Is that correct?
Speaker 2 (03:50):
Yes, so Parliament House is pretty for straightforward. If women
are interested, they can call one three two zero five
zero for an appointment and speak to our office stackhill
them in. For the remote areas, it's generally a matter
of either contacting the office on that same number one
three two zero five zero or their remote health clinics.
(04:12):
So mostly our bookings are done through the health clinics
when really goes out, rather than through the office. But
anyone at the office can give them a hand to
figure it out for their own area.
Speaker 1 (04:23):
And how important is it that women do make sure
that they have a regular breast screen.
Speaker 2 (04:31):
I think for these remote and very remote women it's
actually more important they get to the bus while the
bus is there. I think it's an opportunity that they
can take up to get all their health screening done
at the clinic in one go, there's a vical screen,
talk about any other screening needs that they might have,
and get their mammogram done. We recommend all women over
(04:53):
the age of forty, but particularly those women between fifty
and seventy five, have a mammogram every two years. We
know that most breast cancer in Australia is diagnosed in
women in that age range fifty to seventy five, with
the majority around about the sixty year old mark. So
we'd really like particularly those women not to miss their mammogram.
(05:13):
And that's the main message I would have for the
remotion very remote women. It's not like you can just
phone up and make an appointment and come to Casarina
like someone who lives in Darwin. So if the bus
is out there for a week, really make an effort
to get there. And we know that women make an
enormous effort, you know, sometimes they'll rent a minibus and
come with their friends or community members and travel forth
(05:33):
to six hours just to get to where Millie's parked.
So we know people do make the effort.
Speaker 1 (05:37):
Yeah, I mean, and it is such an important thing
to do. Doctor Arnold, talk me through you know the
survival rates when people do have have their cancer detected early.
It is incredibly important, isn't it.
Speaker 2 (05:53):
It's really important. So sixty percent of the cancers that
we detect via mammographic screening up early cancers, so they're small,
generally less than two centimeters so about the size of
your thumbnail, and they have not been there for very long.
We're good at finding things early on mammogram and that's
the great benefit of mammogram overstay doing a breast check
(06:15):
yourself or a breast check with your GP, and those
women do extremely well. So the smaller and earlier the
cancer is when it's detected, the less treatment that is required,
so less surgery, less chemotherapy or radiotherapy, potentially no chemotherapy
if it's small and early enough, and we can get
(06:36):
those women back out to their communities and back into
their normal lives and living long, full, normal lifespans by
finding cancers when they're small and early.
Speaker 1 (06:46):
How often should women have a mammogram or you know,
have their breast checked in a more formal way.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
So for most women it will be every two years,
and for women who are remote and very unfortunately the
bus only goes to most places every two years, so
that is the only opportunity unless they're coming to Darwin.
For another reason, for some women who have strong risk
of breast cancer, and that's usually because they know that
in their family there's a gene that predisposes to breast cancer,
(07:17):
or they've got a very strong family history with lots
of relative close relatives who've had breast cancer. We will
recommend a mammogram every year, but those women know who
they are. We ask them questions when they come for
their first mammogram and highlight to them that they need
to be able to come into DAH and to have
a mammogram. On the alternatives if we recommend annual screening,
(07:40):
but for the majority of the population aged over forty,
a mammogram every two years is sufficient.
Speaker 1 (07:46):
I understand that last year Breaststrain enty detected breast cancer
and fifty eight women in the Northern Territory. I mean
it goes to show you the work that you're doing
is so incredibly important, isn't it.
Speaker 2 (08:01):
It is really important. So those fifty eight women were
about half the breast cancer cases that were detected in
the NT, so about half of them are detected through
a breast green and the other half are detected because
women go to their health clinic or their GP with
a symptom, with a lump or a nipple discharge, or
have noticed a change in the way their breast looks
(08:21):
or feel, And we certainly encourage women to remain self aware.
We're not saying that that's not important, but we know
that those breast cancers that are detected on a mammogram
are generally smaller and earlier than the cancers that are
detected because they present with a lump or another system
as sorry symptom. So we'd really like women to come
(08:43):
as often as we recommend not skip mammogram, because going
four years or five years between mammograms, you know, we're
not going to find that cast at one centimes. We're
going to find it at three or four centimeter.
Speaker 1 (08:55):
And doctor Arnold, I know, and I'm pretty sure I've
asked you this in the past as well. It's the
age really that you know that people do need to
start having those mammograms. So I know you'd said obviously
those with the family history, the guidelines might be a
little bit different. But you know, some people say fifty
years old, other people say forty, what's the recommendation.
Speaker 2 (09:16):
Yep. So if you look at the age at which
breast cancer occurs in the Australian population, it's mostly between
fifty to seventy five, and that's why we recommend that
that age group definitely screens under the age of fifty,
So between forty and fifty, certainly cancer occurs, it's much
less common, and you start to get into the are
(09:38):
we causing more anxiety doing more harm than good question?
Between forty and fifty, so women who are pre menopausals,
so generally those women under fifty have dense breast tissue.
Dense breast tissue on a mammogram means that the tissue
is white, and so is a breast cancer. So it's
simply harder to see a breast cancer when it's white
(10:00):
against white on a mammogram. Older women who are postmenopausal
tend to have less dense breast tissue as their breasts
change after menopause, and so it's easier to see a
cancer and statistically they're more likely to have a cancer
because that's the age group in which cancer occurs. So
how we are much better at our job in those
(10:20):
fifty to seventy five year old women. Again, over seventy five,
cancer is less likely. Cancer the breast is less likely,
and those older women, they tend to be afflicted with
other illnesses and other problems, and breast cancer is not
the most common problem or even the most common cancer.
So certainly fifty to seventy five is our target age group,
(10:42):
but we know that women age forty to fifty want
to screen, so we are open to women over the
age of forty. Under the age of forty, breast cancer
is so uncommon and mammograms are really not a great
test that we don't recommend it. We think we could
be just doing in more harm than good by exposing
you to X rays but not necessarily being able to
(11:02):
stay with confidence that there's no cancer there. And it's
an uncommon disease in that page group. So we don't
recommend screening under the age of forty with mammography, but
we would certainly recommend that those women self examine.
Speaker 1 (11:14):
Yeah, absolutely well, doctor Lauren Arnold from Breast screen NT.
It is always wonderful to speak to you. Now, if
anybody's listening this morning and they're going, do you know
what I fall right into that category. I would like
to either you go from a mammogram or work out
my best option. What should they do?
Speaker 2 (11:34):
So one three two zero five zero is the phone
number to make an appointment. If they're remote or very
remote and you want to know the bus schedule. It
is easiest to find our website just by googling so
nt Breast screen Bus will take you to the bus
schedule which is online. But if you can't find that,
just ring one three two zero five zero and our
(11:55):
staff will be very happy to talk you through it.
And equally, if you're not sure whether screening is right
for you, either ask our stuff or cr GP.
Speaker 1 (12:03):
Great advice. Well, doctor Lauren Arnold, lovely to speak with
you this morning. Thank you so very much for your time.
Speaker 2 (12:10):
Thanks for persisting, Katie, thank you
Well, free breast screening is coming to remote Territory communities
with Millie the Mobile Screening Bus starting its annual trip
this week. But the bus is going to be at
Parliament House for screening by appointment well, I believe up
until the second of May this Friday. Now joining me
on the line to tell us a little bit more
about the wonderful work that Millie the Mobile Screening Bus does.
(00:22):
It is doctor Doctor Arnold, Doctor Lauren Arnold, I should
say from breastscreen INTI, good morning to you. I seem
to be having some issues there with the phone line.
Hopefully I am able to get her Doctor Lauren Arnold,
good morning to you. No, I'm not too sure why
(00:43):
that is not working. We will give that another go
and hopefully be able to get her on the line.
But yes, we're going to be finding out a little
bit more about breascreen NTE and the wonderful work that
Millie does into the communities. Krystal will just make sure
we're able to get back on the line in just
a moment's time. Now, plenty of messages continuing to flow
(01:05):
through today, keep those coming. I'll just read a couple
of them out for you while we wait to Oh,
hang on, we've got her already, I believe joining me
on the line right now. It is Dr Arnold from
Breastscreen and t good morning to you. All right, I'm
not too sure while we are having issues with this
(01:27):
phone line. Unfortunately, we just seem to be having some
problems being able to get her on the line. There
we go, hopefully, I've got it now, doctor Lauren Arnold,
Do I have you on the line.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
I'm still here.
Speaker 1 (01:41):
I'm so sorry about that. Yes, thank you so very
much for being patient. Not too sure what's going on
with that phone? Lovely to talk to you. I reckon
it will be the only glitch that you have.
Speaker 2 (01:57):
Lauren.
Speaker 1 (01:58):
Tell me a little bit more about where Milly is
going to be heading to over this trip.
Speaker 2 (02:06):
Okay, So Milly goes out in alternate years in alternate directions.
So this year is an odd year, so it's down
to Central Australia. The beginning part of her trip's generally
the same. We start at Parliament House for a week
and that is to iron out the glitches. So a
GLICI is what we expect this week and we try
and find any faults or problems while we're here this
(02:27):
week and fix them while we're still in town, and
then off to belle Ewan, Bachelor, Adelaide, River, Daily River,
Pine Creek, Timber Creek, Catherine, and then from Catherine it's
keeping on down south Bora, Lula, Lieutenant Creek, Tea Tree, Hermannsburg.
You endmu Hearts, range Youlara, and then a short stin
(02:47):
skin Alice Springs itself. We do have a permanent office
in Alice Springs, but we've give them a bit of
a hand on those years when the bus goes down south.
Speaker 1 (02:56):
It is wonderful that Milly does head right around the
northern territory. I think it's a fantastic thing to do.
How like, how many women do you generally have sort
of turn up to come and get their breast screens
when they are in those different locations.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
Yeah, Over the course of the nine months that Melle's
on the road, we get about a thousand women who
come to screen, but we know there are many more
living in the remote and very remote areas who we
don't get to, who don't hear about us or don't
have the opportunity. About a quarter of the NT population
is remote and very remote, and the thousands is not
(03:32):
a quarter of our screening population, so we really hope
we will take the opportunity to come to where Mellie
is part and have a screening mammogram.
Speaker 1 (03:39):
Now I know for a lot of people listening this morning,
they'll be keen to find out a little bit more
about the bus being at Parliament House as well up
until Friday. Is that correct?
Speaker 2 (03:50):
Yes, so Parliament House is pretty for straightforward. If women
are interested, they can call one three two zero five
zero for an appointment and speak to our office stackhill
them in. For the remote areas, it's generally a matter
of either contacting the office on that same number one
three two zero five zero or their remote health clinics.
(04:12):
So mostly our bookings are done through the health clinics
when really goes out, rather than through the office. But
anyone at the office can give them a hand to
figure it out for their own area.
Speaker 1 (04:23):
And how important is it that women do make sure
that they have a regular breast screen.
Speaker 2 (04:31):
I think for these remote and very remote women it's
actually more important they get to the bus while the
bus is there. I think it's an opportunity that they
can take up to get all their health screening done
at the clinic in one go, there's a vical screen,
talk about any other screening needs that they might have,
and get their mammogram done. We recommend all women over
(04:53):
the age of forty, but particularly those women between fifty
and seventy five, have a mammogram every two years. We
know that most breast cancer in Australia is diagnosed in
women in that age range fifty to seventy five, with
the majority around about the sixty year old mark. So
we'd really like particularly those women not to miss their mammogram.
(05:13):
And that's the main message I would have for the
remotion very remote women. It's not like you can just
phone up and make an appointment and come to Casarina
like someone who lives in Darwin. So if the bus
is out there for a week, really make an effort
to get there. And we know that women make an
enormous effort, you know, sometimes they'll rent a minibus and
come with their friends or community members and travel forth
(05:33):
to six hours just to get to where Millie's parked.
So we know people do make the effort.
Speaker 1 (05:37):
Yeah, I mean, and it is such an important thing
to do. Doctor Arnold, talk me through you know the
survival rates when people do have have their cancer detected early.
It is incredibly important, isn't it.
Speaker 2 (05:53):
It's really important. So sixty percent of the cancers that
we detect via mammographic screening up early cancers, so they're small,
generally less than two centimeters so about the size of
your thumbnail, and they have not been there for very long.
We're good at finding things early on mammogram and that's
the great benefit of mammogram overstay doing a breast check
(06:15):
yourself or a breast check with your GP, and those
women do extremely well. So the smaller and earlier the
cancer is when it's detected, the less treatment that is required,
so less surgery, less chemotherapy or radiotherapy, potentially no chemotherapy
if it's small and early enough, and we can get
(06:36):
those women back out to their communities and back into
their normal lives and living long, full, normal lifespans by
finding cancers when they're small and early.
Speaker 1 (06:46):
How often should women have a mammogram or you know,
have their breast checked in a more formal way.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
So for most women it will be every two years,
and for women who are remote and very unfortunately the
bus only goes to most places every two years, so
that is the only opportunity unless they're coming to Darwin.
For another reason, for some women who have strong risk
of breast cancer, and that's usually because they know that
in their family there's a gene that predisposes to breast cancer,
(07:17):
or they've got a very strong family history with lots
of relative close relatives who've had breast cancer. We will
recommend a mammogram every year, but those women know who
they are. We ask them questions when they come for
their first mammogram and highlight to them that they need
to be able to come into DAH and to have
a mammogram. On the alternatives if we recommend annual screening,
(07:40):
but for the majority of the population aged over forty,
a mammogram every two years is sufficient.
Speaker 1 (07:46):
I understand that last year Breaststrain enty detected breast cancer
and fifty eight women in the Northern Territory. I mean
it goes to show you the work that you're doing
is so incredibly important, isn't it.
Speaker 2 (08:01):
It is really important. So those fifty eight women were
about half the breast cancer cases that were detected in
the NT, so about half of them are detected through
a breast green and the other half are detected because
women go to their health clinic or their GP with
a symptom, with a lump or a nipple discharge, or
have noticed a change in the way their breast looks
(08:21):
or feel, And we certainly encourage women to remain self aware.
We're not saying that that's not important, but we know
that those breast cancers that are detected on a mammogram
are generally smaller and earlier than the cancers that are
detected because they present with a lump or another system
as sorry symptom. So we'd really like women to come
(08:43):
as often as we recommend not skip mammogram, because going
four years or five years between mammograms, you know, we're
not going to find that cast at one centimes. We're
going to find it at three or four centimeter.
Speaker 1 (08:55):
And doctor Arnold, I know, and I'm pretty sure I've
asked you this in the past as well. It's the
age really that you know that people do need to
start having those mammograms. So I know you'd said obviously
those with the family history, the guidelines might be a
little bit different. But you know, some people say fifty
years old, other people say forty, what's the recommendation.
Speaker 2 (09:16):
Yep. So if you look at the age at which
breast cancer occurs in the Australian population, it's mostly between
fifty to seventy five, and that's why we recommend that
that age group definitely screens under the age of fifty,
So between forty and fifty, certainly cancer occurs, it's much
less common, and you start to get into the are
(09:38):
we causing more anxiety doing more harm than good question?
Between forty and fifty, so women who are pre menopausals,
so generally those women under fifty have dense breast tissue.
Dense breast tissue on a mammogram means that the tissue
is white, and so is a breast cancer. So it's
simply harder to see a breast cancer when it's white
(10:00):
against white on a mammogram. Older women who are postmenopausal
tend to have less dense breast tissue as their breasts
change after menopause, and so it's easier to see a
cancer and statistically they're more likely to have a cancer
because that's the age group in which cancer occurs. So
how we are much better at our job in those
(10:20):
fifty to seventy five year old women. Again, over seventy five,
cancer is less likely. Cancer the breast is less likely,
and those older women, they tend to be afflicted with
other illnesses and other problems, and breast cancer is not
the most common problem or even the most common cancer.
So certainly fifty to seventy five is our target age group,
(10:42):
but we know that women age forty to fifty want
to screen, so we are open to women over the
age of forty. Under the age of forty, breast cancer
is so uncommon and mammograms are really not a great
test that we don't recommend it. We think we could
be just doing in more harm than good by exposing
you to X rays but not necessarily being able to
(11:02):
stay with confidence that there's no cancer there. And it's
an uncommon disease in that page group. So we don't
recommend screening under the age of forty with mammography, but
we would certainly recommend that those women self examine.
Speaker 1 (11:14):
Yeah, absolutely well, doctor Lauren Arnold from Breast screen NT.
It is always wonderful to speak to you. Now, if
anybody's listening this morning and they're going, do you know
what I fall right into that category. I would like
to either you go from a mammogram or work out
my best option. What should they do?
Speaker 2 (11:34):
So one three two zero five zero is the phone
number to make an appointment. If they're remote or very
remote and you want to know the bus schedule. It
is easiest to find our website just by googling so
nt Breast screen Bus will take you to the bus
schedule which is online. But if you can't find that,
just ring one three two zero five zero and our
(11:55):
staff will be very happy to talk you through it.
And equally, if you're not sure whether screening is right
for you, either ask our stuff or cr GP.
Speaker 1 (12:03):
Great advice. Well, doctor Lauren Arnold, lovely to speak with
you this morning. Thank you so very much for your time.
Speaker 2 (12:10):
Thanks for persisting, Katie, thank you
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