October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, an annual campaign to raise awareness of this complex disease and fund research into its causes, treatment, and cure. Since 1985, individuals, businesses, and communities have come together every October to show their support for the many people affected by breast cancer. Breast Cancer Awareness Month can be a time to reflect, give back, or even celebrate.
Yet, for many people, Breast Cancer Awareness Month is also a difficult reminder of their personal experience with breast cancer and the many lives we have lost to this disease.
- In 2022, an estimated 290,560 new cases of invasive breast cancer are expected to be diagnosed in the U.S., along with 51,400 new cases of non-invasive breast cancer. An estimated 43,780 people will lose their lives to metastatic breast cancer.
- About 1 in 8 U.S. women and 1 in 833 U.S. men will develop invasive breast cancer over the course of their lives.
- As of 2020, there were 2.26 million global cases of breast cancer, making it the most commonly diagnosed cancer in the world. 685,000 of those diagnosed have died.
These numbers remind us there is still urgent work to do — more than we can accomplish in just one month.
