Breast cancer awareness is the effort to aware and educate people on breast cancer and reduce breast cancer stigma through symptoms, treatment, the palliative care of this disease, and knowledge. Supporters of this awareness feel that education and awareness will help early detection of breast cancer, which is correlated to survival rates and the money raised through this awareness will help with the permanent and reliable cure. It is generally through educational campaigns or by providing free/low-cost medical checkups.
The awareness symbol is generally in pink color ribbon and in many countries, October month marks as National Breast Cancer Awareness Month where you’ll find people pinning pink ribbons on their clothes. Some of the breast cancer organizations get financial support from corporate sponsorships.
Checkout our some of the Hospitals that are the breast cancer treatment hospitals in India.
Breast Cancer Awareness worldwide:
According to IARC Globocan, there were about 1.38 million new cases and 458,000 deaths from breast cancer each year. Breast cancer by far is the most common cancer in women in developed and developing countries. Whereas the cases of the disease are rising up steadily due to adoption in western lifestyle culture, increased urbanization and increase in life expectancy.
There is still no specific reason for the cause of breast cancer but early detection remains the key to cure the cancer and expect breast cancer control. But if the cancer is detected late, the curative treatment chances are low. In such cases, palliative care is recommended by doctors to relieve the patients and their families of the sufferings they are dealing with.
Majority of deaths are said to occur in low-middle income countries, say 29,000 deaths because of breast cancer. The reason being breast cancer is diagnosed late mainly due to lack of awareness on early detection and barriers to health care services. If adequate public health programs, ads campaigns are run worldwide, the situation can be adequately reverted.
About Breast Cancer:
Breast cancer is the uncontrollable growth of abnormal cells in the breast. If the cancer is not detected at early stages, it can be life-threatening and may spread to lymph nodes and other parts of the body. The incidence of breast cancer rises after the age of 40 and around 80% cases occur in women after the age of 50. Although the true reason for the breast cancer occurence is still unsure, the common factors may be due to urbanization, adoption of western culture and poor lifestyle.
Breast cancer may spread when the cancerous cells grows and spreads in other organs of the body such as bones, lungs, liver and brain or lymph nodes. This is known as metastasis. The breast cancer stage comprises stage I to stage IV which determines how much the cancer has grown and where all it has spread in the body. Stage IV is the most advanced stage of breast cancer and the survival rate is lower. If the cancer is cured through treatment, it may recur in some cases so it is advised to have regular medical checkup to check if the treatment is up to the expectation.
Breast Cancer treatment depends on several factors such as type and stage of the cancer, a person’s sensitivity towards the hormones and overall health, age and preferences of the individual.
Symptoms of Breast Cancer:
Different people will have different symptoms of breast cancer depending on their overall health and lifestyle. In few cases, there are no signs and symptoms of the cancer which makes the survival chances low as the treatment is not received at earlier stages.
Some warning signals for a breast cancer could be:
- Pain in any area of the breast or heaviness
- Irritation or dimpling of breast skin
- New lump in the breast or armpit
- Swelling or thickening of the breast
- Flaky skin or redness in the nipple area or the breast area
- Pain in the nipple area or a feeling of pulling in
- Nipple discharge other than milk; may be blood discharge
- Any change in the shape or size of the breast
If any of these signs worry you, then do make an appointment with your doctor. Please note, these signs can be in relation to other things that may not be cancer.
Breast Cancer Facts and Figures for the year 2019-2020
The survival rates of breast cancer become difficult in the stages of III and IV. It was reported that 60% survival rates for women in India as compared to the U.S. which is 80%. The state of Kerala in India is said to report the highest cases of breast cancer patients followed by Mizoram, Haryana, Delhi and Karnataka.
Women between the age of 40 and 50 are at considerable risk to develop breast cancer. In India, one in 28 women is said to develop breast cancer during her lifetime. The survival rate of breast cancer in India is low as the detection takes place late. The only way to change this is by raising awareness through education, providing free checkups and running ad campaigns.
Prevention is better than cure so women in their thirties must go for regular health checkups.
Breast cancer also occurs in men but the chances are very few. It is 100 times less in men compared to women. The risk of breast cancer in men is 1 in every 833 people.
According to the National Breast Cancer Foundation, it is estimated that in the year 2020; 2,620 men will be diagnosed with breast cancer in the US and approximately 520 men will die because of it.
Country-wise breast cancer rates:
| RANK | COUNTRY | AGE-STANDARDISED RATE PER 1,00,000 |
| 1 | Belgium | 113.2 |
| 2 | Luxembourg | 109.3 |
| 3 | Netherlands | 105.9 |
| 4 | France | 99.1 |
| 5 | New Caledonia | 98.0 |
| 6 | Lebanon | 97.6 |
| 7 | Australia | 94.5 |
| 8 | UK | 93.6 |
| 9 | Italy | 92.8 |
| 10 | New Zealand | 92.6 |
Five ways to reduce the risk of breast cancer:
There is no specific reason on occurrence of breast cancer and the ways to prevent it but with several things you might lower the likelihood of getting breast cancer.
- Being overweight or obese may increase the chance of breast cancer so it is essential and first step towards maintaining and balancing a healthy lifestyle.
- Exercising regularly decreases the chance of getting breast cancer and other diseases.
- You know what they say,” The key to healthy life is to keep moving.” Hence, sitting less and moving more will prevent the chances of breast cancer.
- Excessive drinking and smoking increases the chances of other types of cancer as well. No more than 1 alcohol drink a day is good for the body.
- Limit Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT) which is inclined to increase the risk of breast cancer after 4 years of use, so use the lowest dose and for a short time possible when opting for HRT.
- Breast cancer prevention starts with healthy habits of eating healthy food, staying active, limiting the use of alcohol and smoking.
‘Spread the word, Spread knowledge, Raise awareness.’
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