First symptoms
Doctors still recommend the auto-exam to find an eventual painless and hard lump. Other symptoms mentioned on the Canadian Cancer Society’s website are:
- Armpit lump;
- Change in breast size or shape;
- Skin changes;
- Nipple changes.
Screening
Since 1986, the mortality rate in patients with breast cancer has decreased by 42%, thanks to prevention and early diagnosis. In 2013, researchers discovered several causes to breast cancer like a protein that plays a key role in the development of metastasis, the main cause of death in patients. These discoveries should facilitate the early detection of cancers, first in women at risk and later on in the general population.
Number of affected women
An estimated 23,800 Canadians will be diagnosed with breast cancer in 2013 and 64% of them live in Quebec or in Ontario. That represents an average of 65 new patients each day! Breast cancer remains the most common cancer in women.
Survival
Although the disease still worries people, the remission rate increases from year to year and breast cancer is not the deadly and devastating disease that it used to be. Today it is about 88 % of women who survive beyond five years after receiving a diagnosis of breast cancer. However, after lung cancer, it is still the type of cancer that causes more deaths among Quebecers and statistics show that every week, 100 Canadians die from that disease!
Around the world
Breast cancer is mostly affecting industrialized countries. Several factors can explain this situation. First, women in industrialized countries are exposed to more pollution and stress, the population is aging and screenings are much more common and results in finding more cancers of all types.
Breastfeeding
The Lancet has recently published a detailed study showing that breastfeeding decreased by 4.3% the risk of developing breast cancer for each year of breastfeeding. Also, a Spanish study found that women who breastfeed for a period of more than six months delayed their risk of suffering from breast cancer by a decade.
Age
The vast majority of breast cancers (82%) are diagnosed in women over 50 years old.
Contraceptive pill
In recent years, the contraceptive pill and oestrogens in general have been associated with breast cancer. Indeed, for some researchers, it appears that oral contraceptives increase the risk of breast, cervix and liver cancers, but reduce the risk of ovarian cancer and endometrial cancer. However, these risks would increase only among younger users and the scientific community is still debating the effects of oestrogens and these conclusions.
Why a pink ribbon?
The first ribbon used to raise awareness was a yellow ribbon used by an American who, inspired by a song, was tying them to trees to show that she was keeping hope to see her husband who was hostage in Iran come back. In the seventies, wives also tied yellow ribbons to oak trees to show their ex-convict husbands that they would still welcome them home. During the eighties, the red ribbon became the symbol of AIDS awareness and since then, ribbons of all colors have been used for various causes. Pink has been used for breast cancer because it is the color associated with girls at birth and breast cancer is primarily associated with women.
Donations
Each year, companies and businesses sell pink ribbon products. If the gesture is sometimes criticized for its commercial side, it still brings millions of dollars to the cause every year. This money is invested in research and in initiatives that remind women how important prevention is.
