“October usually has everyone thinking in fall colors: orange pumpkins, burnished yellow shocks of wheat, and the browns and golds of autumn leaves.  There is another color for October, however, and it is pink.

 

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and there is no better time to revisit the discussion of a cancer which is expected to kill 41,430 Americans this year, 880 of them in Missouri.

 

The good news is that survival rates are rising, due to medical advancements and greater early detection.  Still, one in eight American women will be diagnosed with breast cancer in their lifetimes, and breast cancer remains the second-deadliest cancer among women.  We simply cannot ignore the incidence of this deadly disease.

 

With over 213,000 new diagnoses of breast cancer expected in 2006, Breast Cancer Awareness Month reminds women to get a mammogram, to keep up-to-date medical records, and to take care of one another by making sure we all get the exams we need.

 

Women should also take note that breast cancer is not just a disease that affect older women.  Nearly 11,000 otherwise healthy women younger than 40 will be diagnosed with breast cancer this year, according to the American Cancer Society.  Women of childbearing age account for approximately five percent of breast cancer patients.

 

Because breast cancer is harder to diagnose among younger women, due to monthly changes and changes during pregnancy that can mask the disease, better technologies are needed to find breast cancer in its early stages.

 

Filling this void are digital mammography and Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), but these new technologies are expensive and difficult to find (especially in rural America).  We must work, through word of mouth and through the private sector, to change that fact.  The National Academies of Science, for instance, last year endorsed MRI technology as the best complement to mammography in breast cancer detection.

 

Seeing your doctor and having regular mammograms still remains the front line of defense when it comes to detecting this deadly disease.

Doctors across the board maintain that one of the most important keys to beating breast cancer is early detection.  Because finding the cancer is so critical, some cancer awareness organizations have begun raising funds to provide free mammograms to women in addition to funding treatment and research.

 

Technology is also playing a role in reminding women to get an annual examination.  A new e-mail program sponsored by the American Cancer Society will actually send women a mammogram reminder when a visit to the doctor is due.

 

We hear so many reminders about breast cancer that sometimes it is easy to assume everyone knows the importance of check-ups and mammograms.  It is so very important to take these warnings seriously and to translate them into action.  If you are a woman over 40, please make sure you are getting an annual mammogram.  If you know a woman over 40 who isn’t, take the time to give them a good scare before Halloween, and talk to them about the lifesaving importance of breast cancer detection.

 

Please visit the American Cancer Society online at www.cancer.org to learn more, or call 1-800-ACS-2345 for information.”