Anne Arundel County public health officials proudly show off a simple bar graph with a dramatic dip in the end. It's the equivalent of an Oscar, a Tony or a Pulitzer Prize in their business.
The dip means women's lives saved.
After about a decade of skyrocketing cancer rates among men and women in Anne Arundel that exceeded those of the state and nation, the county Health Department began a campaign in 1991 promoting healthier living.
For breast cancer, it was simpleand common sense: Get area doctors and hospitals to offer free or low-cost mammograms, remind women about their appointments and give them rides and drum up news media coverage of breast cancer awareness.
Now, mortality rates in the county for all cancers among men and women are declining, and the mortality rate for breast cancer, the second deadliest cancer for women in the county, is also dropping.
"In public health, this is drama," said Frances B. Phillips, county health officer. "We made an investment, and it's paying off."
For scores of women, such as Marsha Foster, a 56-year-old Annapolis mother, the graph is more than an occupational accomplishment. The health tips the Health Department pushed -- having routine mammograms and doing breast self-exams -- helped save her life.
According to Health Department statistics, the extra mammogram screenings have saved 20 women a year who have cancers in early stages.
"It's not enough to fill a jumbo jet, but it might fill a bus," said Dr. Katherine Farrell, deputy health officer.
As an operator for the Health Department's cancer prevention line, Foster was well aware of how a low-fat diet and exercise could help prevent cancer. But even twice-a-year mammograms did not detect the large cancerous lump she found in her right breast during a self-exam about 18 months ago.
Now, after two surgeries and several months of chemotherapy, Foster is finding she is not alone in suffering, but also in living, with the disease.
"Almost everybody I talk to is a survivor," she said. "It feels like an epidemic."
The kind of epidemic health officials like hearing about.
Six years ago, when they took a look at the latest cancer statistics -- then from 1983 to 1987 -- Anne Arundel residents were dying at a faster rate from lung, colon and breast cancer than residents in any other Maryland county. The rate was higher than for the nation as a whole as well.
