This week, FLASS announces and interrupts our series on sleep to alert you about Breast Cancer Awareness month. October blooms pink once again in Orlando. Doctors and staff, families and friends will be celebrating National Breast Cancer Awareness Month. This will include a fine frenzy of walks, races, baked goods, and fundraisers for breast cancer awareness, research and advocacy.
FLASS hopes you will join us to help to raise awareness about breast cancer. Even if you only contribute to the cause by wearing a tiny ribbon, you are helping us spread the word. Breast cancer and the continued importance of early detection is vital. We wear the pink ribbons to celebrate the survivors of this killer disease. Likewise, the pink ribbon commemorates the women in our lives who lost their fight with breast cancer.
Public Awareness Proves Pink Power Works: Breast Cancer Statistics
Breast Cancer Awareness has been the first step to better treatment options.
Did you know the Pink Ribbon adoption as a symbol of breast cancer awareness is 25 years old this year? Look at some of the newest statistics. They certainly prove the power of 25 years of public awareness and speaking out for a cause.
- For example, more than 3.1 million people in the US, including some who are still in treatment, are alive today in spite of their battle with breast cancer in the United States.
- Likewise, we are proud that “a woman’s risk of dying of breast dropped 38 percent between the late 1980s and 2014. This translates into 297,300 fewer breast cancer deaths during that time.”
Awareness is First Line Defense as Pink War Rages Against Breast Cancer
Fighter against breast cancer will one day give it the knock-out.
In contrast, FLASS believes some statistics are still shockingly dismal. Disappointment continues after a quarter of a century of hard work, advocating, foot races, legislating and researching:
Diagnosis Statistic: The American Cancer Society stated that by the end of 2017 in the US, doctors will diagnose 252,710 new cases of invasive breast cancer.
- Early Detection Statistic: For the early form of breast cancer, we expect the number to be smaller: There will only be 63,410 women cases of CIS.
Disturbing Death Number: In spite of better therapy and early detection, it pains FLASS to admit that 40,610 women will die from breast cancer. If you cannot grasp the gravity of that number, consider this. FLASS wants you to imagine the death of entire a small town or suburb of people. That would be about the number of people who live in Beverly, MA. or Azusa, CA.,
Bringing the image closer to home, that number is almost the entire population of Panama City, FL. or Winter Garden, FL.
Research is still Vital
Breast Cancer Research Continues: And there are other mysteries that continue to elude our finest breast cancer researchers. For example, “while black and white women get breast cancer at roughly the same rate, black women are more likely to die from it.”
We can’t fix this disparity yet, but we have measured it. Massive studies are underway. “There remains a large racial gap in mortality, with African-American women having 42 percent higher death rates compared to whites.”
One More Frightening Statistic: There is possibly an ultimate statistic. If you are a woman, the chance that you will die from breast cancer is about 1 in 37 (about 2.7percent). Plus breast cancer in some form will touch the lives of 1 out of every 8 US women. In all the excitement of the month’s special breast cancer awareness events, do not forget that the pink ribbon has a special symbolic message that harkens back to its early adoption.
Mammography exams are Vital
- Under all the media hype, that pink ribbon symbolizes a message. The message is about the crucial importance of mammography exams. Remember, as we previously stated, 1 in 8 women’s lives will be affected. They will be interrupted by breast cancer, and one in 37 women in the US will die.
Therefore, Florida Lung, Asthma and Sleep Specialists hope you remind the women in your life about their mammograms. That ribbon on your collar or lapel might trigger their memory.
The woman you remind about her appointment might be the woman whose life you save.
Take-Aways on Breast and Lung Cancer Awareness
Happy cancer survivor after successful chemotherapy.
Thus, Florida Lung, Asthma and Sleep Specialists realize there’s much more to be done before we can allow the pink ribbons to retire. FLASS also reminds you that breast cancer is still the second leading cause of cancer death in women. Logically, you might want to know what style of cancer kills more women than breast cancer. So, what is the number one leading cause of cancer-related deaths in women?
Unfortunately, here at Florida Lung, Asthma and Sleep Specialists, we know that answer far too well: With the exception of certain types of deadly skin cancer, “Only lung cancer kills more women each year.”According to the American Cancer Society, by the end of the year, lung cancer will kill approximately 72,160 women in the US.
That number is almost twice the size of any one of those small towns we mentioned above. In fact, one out of four deaths from cancer is caused by lung cancer. Therefore, November will bring you articles about lung cancer and its risk factors.
Lung doctors everywhere hope to capture as many kind hearts and sharp minds as have the pink ribbons of breast cancer awareness. Currently, it is not as easy to get the facts about lung cancer as it is to find information on breast cancer. In the future, the doctors and staff of FLASS believe they must attract society to lung cancer awareness in the same way that breast cancer awareness continues to engage our communities –and all of our hearts.
