BREAST HEALTH
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Breast cancer will likely touch you or someone you know.
Worldwide, it is estimated that every minute a woman dies from breast cancer. Women fear breast cancer more than any other disease. Breast cancer is the second leading cause of cancer deaths among women, after lung cancer, and the risk increases with age.
Who’s At Risk for Developing Breast Cancer?
Most women who get breast cancer have no family history of the disease or other known risk factors. Breast cancer can occur at any age, but it become more frequent as a woman gets older. Being a woman is the greatest risk--age increases risk. A cure for breast cancer has not yet been discovered, so early detection is the best protection a woman can have. Educate yourself about breast cancer so that you recognize early symptoms.
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Breast cancer is not exclusively a woman’s disease. It does occur in men, though infrequently, about one out of every 100-breast cancer cases strikes males.
- According to the American Cancer Society, breast cancer will strike more than 200,000 times this year and claim more than 40,000 lives.
- The National Cancer Institute states that there are an estimated 22.4 million people living with a history of cancer and approximately 9 million cancer survivors in the United States.
Good News
The earlier that breast cancer is detected the better the outcome. Over 2 million breast cancer survivors are alive in America today. The most recent data indicate that death rates have begun to decline in white women, and, for the first time, are also declining in younger black women. These decreases are attributed to earlier detection and improved treatment of breast cancer.