Breast Cancer Facts

With all the health myths that permeate our lives, it’s important to have the facts when it comes to something as serious as breast cancer.

Here are some breast cancer facts:

Fact: The pink ribbon has become an internationally-recognized symbol of breast cancer awareness.

Fact: The pink ribbon gained notoriety through cosmetic company Estee Lauder and Self journal for the magazine’s Breast Cancer Awareness issue in 1992. Another cosmetics company, Avon, sold pink ribbon pins the following year to raise cash for breast cancer research.

Fact: The pink ribbon was first used in 1991 when the Susan G. Komen Foundation handed out the ribbons at its illinois City event, “Race for the Cure.”

Fact: Aside from non-melanoma skin cancer, Breast cancer is the most common cancer in ladies. it is the leading cause of cancer-related death for Hispanic ladies ages 15 to 54.

Fact: over 80 percent of all breast lumps are noncancerous (benign).

Fact: The National Cancer Institute estimates that over 207,000 ladies and 2,000 men in the U.S. will be diagnosed with breast cancer in 2010. Breast cancer will be responsible for 40,000 deaths in females and 400 males.

Fact: over three-fourths of people with breast cancer are ladies over the age of 50.

Fact: The five-year survival rate of Stage 0 to Stage II breast cancer patients is over 80 percent. The same survival rate for Stage III breast cancer patients is still over 50 percent.