Breast cancer awareness is focus during October
BY DAVE BENJAMIN Staff Writer

JACKSON - In an attempt to make more people aware of the danger of breast cancer, Mayor Mark Seda announced that October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

"National Breast Cancer Awareness Month educates women about the early importance of breast cancer detection," Seda said. "Since its inception, mammography use has doubled and breast cancer death rates have declined. Still, many women do not have a mammogram at regular intervals."

Seda said the National Cancer Institute has indicated that 12.7 percent of women born in the United States today will develop breast cancer at some time in their lives.

If the rate stays the same, women born now will have a 12.7 percent or one in eight chance in being diagnosed with breast cancer at some point in their lives, he said.

Seda said that in the 1970s the lifetime risk of being diagnosed with breast cancer in the United States was 10 percent or a one in 10 chance.

"Many women do not know they have breast cancer until it is advanced. The results from a study published July 20 in the Journal of Medical Oncology showed that an annual mammogram will lower a woman's breast cancer mortality by 31 percent," the mayor said. "Over a period of four years that would cut a woman's risk of death from breast cancer by 88 percent."

Mammography is the best available method of detecting breast changes that may lead to cancer. He said breast cancer deaths could decline further if all women age 40 and over had a mammogram at regular intervals.

Seda suggested that all women in the community make early detection a regular part of their lives and suggested that they discuss programs with their physician or healthcare provider. He encouraged people to participate in the 2007 Komen Race for the Cure on Oct. 14 at Great Adventure.

Joyce Kalia, a resident of the Westlake adult community in Jackson, said organizers are busy preparing for the Komen race.

Miriam Applebaum, another volunteer, said donations are still being accepted,

Township Council President Ann Updegrave said men should also consider all tests for early detection and treatment of breast cancer.

"The devastating effects this insidious disease has on yourself, your family and friends will forever effect your life," Updegrave said. "This deadly disease can strike either gender at any time in one's life.

"But because it is rare in men it goes undetected, untreated and it spreads to the chest wall," she said. "Breast cancer came into my family three times within six years. My mother was in her 70's when she found her form of breast cancer, caused by estrogen hormone treatment. My two sisters were in their 50's when they were diagnosed. The important fact to know is that there was no known history of breast cancer on my mother's side of the family."

Updegrave said she is thankful that all of her family members are alive years later. She said those positive results were due to early detection and treatment.