Teresa Heinz says she has breast cancer, slams federal mammography recommendations

Teresa Heinz says she has breast cancer, slams federal mammography recommendations
By Glen Johnson, APDecember 23rd, 2009
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Teresa Heinz says she’s fighting breast cancer

BOSTON — Teresa Heinz says she is being treated for breast cancer discovered through a mammogram and wants younger women to keep undergoing the tests despite a federal panel’s recent recommendation to reduce their frequency.

The 71-year-old wife of 2004 Democratic presidential nominee Sen. John Kerry, of Massachusetts, tells The Associated Press the cost of mammography is less than the pain women face if their cancer goes undetected early and they have to be treated with chemotherapy.

Heinz says her cancer was discovered through an annual mammogram. Doctors initially thought it was confined to her left breast but later determined it was in her right breast also.

Heinz has had two lumpectomies since October and will undergo a new form of radiation treatment next month.