As I’m sure mostly everyone knows, the month of October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. The goal of this national devotion to breast cancer is to get as many people involved with raising funds and awareness for the disease. In honor of this extremely important month and topic, I thought I would do my part to share statistics, inform about easy self-exams, and give ways to help!
What It Is/Statistics
To start from the very beginning, cancer is defined by the CDC as: “a disease in which cells in the body grow out of control.” Besides skin cancer, breast cancer is the most common cancer in women in the United States with 264,000 cases diagnosed and 42,000 deaths annually. Female breast cancer is the fifth leading cause of death in the world, and has surpassed lung cancer as the most commonly diagnosed cancer. The survival rates for breast cancer all depend on the circumstances- how early it was caught, whether it is metastatic (spreading to other parts of the body) or not, and the woman’s age; however the number of women over the age of 50 who have died from breast cancer has been steadily decreasing since 2007. Generally speaking, survival rates are higher if it is caught early and is non-metastatic. With all of this said, from 1989 to 2019 the number of women who have died of breast cancer has decreased by 42% due to improved treatments and early detection.
Self-Exams
The National Breast Cancer Foundation encourages women to self-exam at least once a month. To put it quickly and simply, when you’re standing in front of the mirror, in the shower, or lying down, just take your middle three fingers and feel around for lumps. They are best done 3-5 days after your period begins. According to Johns Hopkins Medical center, “Forty percent of diagnosed breast cancers are detected by women who feel a lump, so establishing a regular breast self-exam is very important.” For more information on how to do a self-exam, you can read about them on the National Breast Cancer Foundation website here: https://www.nationalbreastcancer.org/breast-self-exam#:~:text=Using%20your%20left%20hand%2C%20move,steps%20for%20your%20left%20breast.
How to Help
There are tons of different ways that you can help spread awareness, from simply wearing pink and informing others to donating and attending fundraisers. For all of the Holy Cross students, there is a walk in Cambridge this Saturday, October 29! To register, click here. You can donate to the National Breast Cancer Foundation at this link, and the American Cancer Society (specifically for breast cancer) here. Try your best to help as much as possible and remember to keep all the strong women who fight or have fought breast cancer in your prayers!