National Breast Cancer Awareness Month – Take Action
As I thought about National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, I thought about why we needed to be aware. The mere fact that they ask us to be aware indicates that we have failed in the past to give breast cancer the attention it deserves. Well, here are a few statistics that should cement the fact that a whole month concentrating on breast cancer is a worthy goal.
According to the National Breast Cancer Foundation –
1 in 8 women, or approximately 13% of the female population in the US, will develop breast cancer in their lifetime.
Breast cancer is the most common cancer in American women, except for skin cancers.
It is estimated that in 2024, approximately 30% of all new female cancer diagnoses will be breast cancer.
On average, every 2 minutes, a woman is diagnosed with breast cancer in the United States.
Those statistics alone should give us all the reasons we need to sharpen our awareness but allow me to take a more personal approach. While thousands of Americans are impacted by breast cancer each year, the honest truth is we often don’t really get serious about any health problem until it affects us personally or someone close to us. We’ve all seen this with famous people who use their notoriety to marshal resources to fund research to help find new ways to lessen the impact of the disease or to find a cure. I think of Michael J. Fox, who began battling Parkinson’s at a young age. In response, he has started a foundation that is now the world's largest nonprofit funder of Parkinson's drug development. I applaud his willingness to expend his energy on this endeavor and his openness to talk about how Parkinson’s affects him personally. Without diminishing his work, I do wonder if he would have gotten involved to this level if he had not contracted this disease. It became very personal to him, and he understood the devastating impact it had on his life. He wanted to use what powers he had to see if he could spare other people the suffering brought on by this devastating disease.
The secret, it seems, is to get personal. I do recognize it won’t be easy to get any of us who have not been afflicted with breast cancer or had a loved one affected to not only be more aware but to take some action. It is important to understand that there are things we can do that can have a real impact on those we love.
One of the first roadblocks on this trek to action is recognizing that the great majority of those at risk of breast cancer are women. While men absolutely can contract breast cancer, the overwhelming majority of those affected are women. If there’s one thing I’ve seen during my years of working on healthcare issues is that men are the worst patients and the worst at seeking a doctor’s help when it is really needed, let alone for any type of preventative care. I know growing up, if there was ever any type of playground or sport injury all you needed to do was rub some dirt in it and soldier on. More than once, I heard the phrase, “You don’t need stitches; a butterfly bandage will do just fine”. It’s this type of logic that doesn’t bode well for convincing men that it is important that they encourage their loved ones to take preventive action. Because of this, I’m going to focus on men.
Here’s what you can do. Talk with the women in your life and tell them you want them in your life for a long, long time. Tell them there are some things that they can do that can help them survive if they contract breast cancer. Give them some facts.
Age, race, family history and genetic factors, personal health history, certain genome changes, and dense breast tissue can all have an impact on your risk factors for contracting breast cancer. Click here to get a healthy living and personal risk guide to help the women in your life determine their breast cancer risk. Sit down and go through the pamphlet with them.
The good news is there is a huge advantage to early discovery.
Approximately 66% of breast cancer cases are diagnosed at a localized stage before cancer has spread outside of the breast when it is easiest to treat.
The 5-year relative survival rate for cancer diagnosed at the localized stage is 99%.
It is obvious that discovering breast cancer in its earlier stages is key to survival.
Approximately 15% of women diagnosed have a family history of breast cancer. Those with a first-degree relative (mother, sister, daughter) with breast cancer are nearly twice as likely to develop breast cancer themselves.
There is another booklet that goes through the symptoms of breast cancer. You can click here to check it out. It helps if you and your loved one understand the signs and be on the lookout for them.
The final piece of advice is that after the risks have been assessed and you know the symptoms, encourage your loved one to make an appointment with her doctor to discuss her findings and develop a plan for performing the appropriate tests and exams given her risk factors. You can again take action to ensure the follow-up is done as planned.
It’s up to each of you to shake off the profile of the head in the sandman and take action to help those women in your life stay healthy.
Best, Thair