Last Week to Wear PINK!

October is breast cancer awareness week. Wear PINK to promote awareness for the second most common form of cancer in women.

To become active in breast cancer awareness please support Habit 4 Health boot campers Deanna Miller and Patty Frantz via facebook. Both do a lot of fundraising for the Susan G. Komen 3 day 60 mile walk in Phoenix November 12-14th.

Early detection is imperative. Annual mammograms for women over the age of 40, annual clinical breast exams, and monthly self breast exams are all ways to detect breast cancer early.

According to the American Cancer Society...

• Estimated 192,000 new case of invasive breast cancer are expected to be diagnosed in the United States this year.


• Approximately 40,000 women died from breast cancer in 2009 alone.


• Approximately 1,910 new cases of invasive breast cancer was diagnosed among men in the United States in 2009.


• Today 2.5 million breast cancer survivors are living in the United States

What is breast cancer?

• Breast Cancer is a malignant tumor that grows in one or both breasts and usually develops in ducts or lobules (milk producing area of the breast).

Two main categories of breast cancer:

• Noninvasive cancers: confined to the ducts or lobules and does not spread to surrounding tissues.


• Invasive cancers: penetrates through normal breast tissue and invades surrounding tissues.

Stages of breast cancer:

• Stage 0: early stage confined to ducts or the lobules.


• Stage 1: early stage of invasive breast cancer. Cancer cells have not spread beyond breast and tumor is no more than 2 centimeters across.


• Stage 2 is one of the following:

-tumor in breast is no more than 2 centimeters across. Cancer has spread to lymph nodes under the arm.

-tumor is between 2 and 5 centimeters and may have spread to lymph nodes under arm

-tumor is larger than 5 centimeters and has not spread to lymph nodes under the arm

• Stage 3: may be a large tumor, but cancer has not spread beyond breast and nearby lymph nodes. It is locally advanced cancer.

-Stage 3A is one of the following:

~tumor is in breast and is 5 centimeters. Cancer has spread to underarm lymph nodes.

~tumor is more than 5 centimeters and has spread to underarm lymph nodes

-Stage 3B is one of the following:

~tumor has grown into chest wall or the skin of the breast.

~tumor cancer has spread to lymph nodes behind breastbone.

-Stage 3C: tumor of any size and has spread to lymph nodes behind breast bone and underarm or has spread to lymph nodes under or above collarbone.

-Stage 4: distant metastatic cancer and has spread.

Resources:

National Breast Cancer Awareness Month

American Cancer Society

Center for Disease Control and Prevention: Breast Cancer

National Cancer Institute