Breast Cancer Awareness Month; Join us in the fight for the cure!

In In The News by Barbara Jacoby

LLH network pressFrom: Home Care Assistance

In observance of Breast Cancer Awareness Month and as a proud partner of the Susan G. Komen Passionately Pink for the Cure® campaign, Home Care Assistance is dedicated to community outreach and education around this prevalent disease. Did you know that breast cancer is currently the second leading cause of cancer-related deaths among women? While such statistics are sobering, recent scientific developments and the ongoing dedicated efforts of leading experts in this field make the goal of finding a cure seem more attainable. Over the past 12 months, doctors have made significant strides in the battle against breast cancer, with advancements promising to not only decrease mortality but also the overall incidence of the disease. Community fundraising and educational initiatives make these forward steps possible!

Breast cancer tends to be caused by a combination of factors. Some factors we are able to control (like exercise and our diet), some are out of our control (like age and genetics) and some are still unknown. When it comes to breast cancer, most risk factors that we have some control over have only a small effect on risk. This means that there is no one behavior that will prevent breast cancer. But, it also means there’s no one factor that will cause it. Even a woman with a BRCA gene mutation doesn’t have a 100 percent chance of getting breast cancer.
The first steps to preventing any disease are understanding its risk factors and making lifestyle changes to decrease your risk as much as possible. Breast Cancer risk factors that all women should be aware of include:

  • Older age
  • Menarche (menstruation) at an early age
  • Older age at first birth or never having given birth
  • A personal history of breast cancer or benign (non-cancerous) tumors
  • A mother or sister with breast cancer
  • Treatment that involved radiation therapy in the breast/chest region
  • Breast tissue that is dense on a mammogram
  • Taking hormones such as estrogen and progesterone
  • Obesity
  • Regular alcohol consumption
To determine your risk for developing invasive breast cancer, you can refer to the Breast Cancer Risk Assessment Tool designed by scientists at the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and the National Surgical Adjuvant Breast and Bowel Project (NSABP). If you are not a health professional, you should discuss the results with your doctor.
Join us in the fight for a cure; share this information with your friends and family in an effort to raise awareness around this disease!