Did you know that October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month (NBCAM)?  Well it is! According to Wikipedia (you know, the bearer of ALL knowledge), “NBCAM was founded in 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 aim of the NBCAM from the start has been to promote mammography as the most effective weapon in the fight against breast cancer.”

As an epidemiologist (and no, I am not a skin doctor…I do have a doctorate, but am not a skin specialist, ahem!), I often think in terms of numbers (yay, numbers!!).  The following statistics come from the American Cancer Society’s ‘Cancer Facts & Figures, 2013’:

New cases:  “An estimated 232,340 new cases of invasive breast cancer are expected to be diagnosed among women in the US during 2013; about 2,240 new cases are expected in men.”

Deaths:  “An estimated 40,030 breast cancer deaths (39,620 women, 410 men) are expected in 2013. Breast cancer ranks second as a cause of cancer death in women (after lung cancer).”

Although much progress has been made with regard to breast cancer prevention and control, much remains to be done.  You can help by becoming informed, spreading the word, and helping any way you can to advance our science and other efforts to help fight the battle against breast cancer.

For additional information on signs/symptoms, treatment, survival rates, etc., consult the full report here, or visit www.cancer.org, and/or consult with your doctor.

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To bring it back full circle to topics related to staying ‘chic’ in the workplace, I’ve put together a collection of pink items to help you both raise awareness, as well as help raise funds for the Breast Cancer Research Foundation!  Portions of sales for items listed with an asterisk go towards funding the Breast Cancer Research Foundation.  The ones without an asterisk were, well…cute. 🙂