October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month

In an effort to increase awareness I thought I'd do a little research and bring together some stats about breast cancer and some Internet resources regarding this disease.

According to the American Cancer Society:

• About 182,460 women in the United States will be found to have invasive breast cancer this year.
• About 40,480 women will die from the disease this year.
• There are about 2.5 million breast cancer survivors in the United States.
• Woman have about 1 in 8 chance of developing invasive breast cancer.
• The chance of dying from breast cancer is about 1 in 35.

Even though the risk of developing breast cancer is real and serious, I did find that deaths from breast cancer are on the decline. Increased awareness, early diagnosis, research and advances in treatments have contributed significantly to the decline. I know us women have been bombarded with information about breast cancer over the years, but how much do you really know? I've posted some links to handful of great sites that have a wealth of information about breast cancer.

American Cancer Society
National Breast Cancer Awareness Month (nbcam.org)
Susan G. Komen for the Cure
National Breast Cancer Foundation
NIH National Cancer Institute