Oklahoma's Mastectomy Rate Among Nation's Highest

Monday, September 24th 2007, 6:25 am

By: News On 6

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) -- Oklahoma ranks fifth nationally in the rate at which women have breasts removed because of cancer. Data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services from 2003 shows Oklahoma has a high prevalence of mastectomies to treat breast cancer among Medicare enrollees. The 2003 data is the most recent year available on the Dartmouth Atlas of Health Care web site.

Researchers often use Medicare patients for health care measurements because data are collected nationally and available for comparisons.

In 2003 in Oklahoma, 1.6 out of every 1,000 Medicare enrollees had mastectomies. The national rate was 1.2 per 1,000.