Breast Cancer Awareness Month

Overview

Breast cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer in women worldwide and a major cause of cancer death, though survival keeps improving with earlier detection and more targeted treatments. It actually includes several biological subtypes (hormone receptor-positive, HER2-positive, and triple-negative), and each one has its own treatment approach and outlook.

Impact

A breast cancer diagnosis touches physical health, body image, fertility, relationships, mental health, and finances all at once. The burden falls harder on women in lower-resource settings and on Black women in the US, who face higher mortality even with similar rates of diagnosis. Screening programs and access to team-based treatment are distributed unevenly, which keeps those disparities in place.

Medical Overview

Risk factors include increasing age, female sex, family history or inherited mutations (especially BRCA1/2 and PALB2), reproductive and hormonal factors, dense breast tissue, alcohol use, and obesity. Most major organizations recommend routine mammography starting between ages 40 and 50 and continuing through at least 74, with MRI added for women at high lifetime risk. Tomosynthesis (3D mammography) has improved detection in dense breasts specifically. Diagnosis is made through imaging-guided core biopsy, and staging and treatment decisions are shaped by tumor size, grade, receptor status, and genomic assays like Oncotype DX. Treatment typically combines surgery (lumpectomy or mastectomy) with radiation, systemic therapy chosen for the subtype (endocrine therapy, HER2-directed agents, chemotherapy, newer antibody-drug conjugates, CDK4/6 inhibitors), and immunotherapy in selected cases. For people with high-penetrance mutations, risk-reduction options like lifestyle changes, chemoprevention, and risk-reducing surgery work alongside screening.

References

1. Farkas AH, Nattinger AB. Breast Cancer Screening and Prevention . Annals of Internal Medicine . 2023.
2. Ren W, Chen M, Qiao Y, Zhao F. Global guidelines for breast cancer screening: A systematic review . The Breast . 2022.
3. Obeagu EI, Obeagu GU. Breast cancer: A review of risk factors and diagnosis . Medicine (Baltimore) . 2024.