It’s October and shades of pink are all over town, This is because, as it has been since 1985, October is commemorated in America and several other countries as Breast Cancer Awareness Month. In America the month is designated National Breast Cancer Awareness Month (NBCAM), and was founded in October, 1985 as a partnership between the American Cancer Society and the pharmaceutical division of Imperial Chemical Industries(now part of AstraZeneca, producer of several anti-breast cancer drugs).
The initial objective of the NBCAM was to promote mammography as the most effective weapon in the fight against breast cancer.
Since, as Breast Cancer, continues to afflict and result in the death of thousands of women worldwide annually, the month has been designated to make women of all ages aware of the disease, and to raise funds for research into its cause, prevention, diagnosis, treatment and cure.
Breast cancer awareness month is also meant to educate people about the importance of early screening, test and more.
Despite advancement in diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer in the US, the American Cancer society and US Breast cancer.org predicts about 40,920 in the US are expected to die in 2018 from the disease. The good news is that has decreased from 1989, particularly in the case of women under age-50. These decreases have been attributed to treatment advances, earlier detection through preventive screening and increased awareness.
