Q. What's the real deal on mammograms? My friend gets one every year. I get one every second year. Another friend says it's all money-driven hype; we're all between 60 and 70.

A. Post menopausal women very much need to have annual check ups and mammograms. The number one risk factor for cancer is advancing age. Of course you will want to consider family history, past usage of hormones etc., but there is no higher factor than age.

Cancer will react differently and advance differently in older patients than it would in a younger person. An eighty-five or ninety year old woman with breast cancer will probably not die from the breast cancer, she is at greater risk for a heart attack or other age-related ailment.

However, she is much more prone to be diagnosed with breast cancer than a thirty-five year old woman.

As with all forms of cancer, early detection is paramount.