Edward, what is the history of October as Breast Cancer Awareness month? International health campaign in the month of October is to increase global awareness of breast cancer. The campaign is traced to the USA where the month-long campaign is known as National Breast Cancer Awareness Month. The first organised effort to bring widespread attention to breast cancer occurred as a week-long event in the United States in October 1985, founded by the American Cancer Society (ACS) and the Imperial Chemical Industries Pharmaceuticals (later part of AstraZeneca). Since then, campaigns to increase awareness of the disease, to educate people about methods of prevention and early detection, and to raise money to support research have spread to countries across the world. In the USA, National Breast Cancer Awareness Month (NBCAM) was (and still is today) to educate and empower women to take charge of their breast health. A well-known public figure and breast cancer survivor Betty Ford and her daughter helped to kick off the first week-long awareness event with an emotional televised appeal. After the NBCAM became a year-long series of educational and fundraising activities culminating in October.
NBCAM consists of the creation and distribution of promotional materials, brochures, advertisements, public service spots, and other educational aids. In addition to advertising, there is free exposure through word of mouth, clinical promotion, workplace and community initiatives, and political representatives. For years, the program encouraged routine self-breast exams and annual mammograms.
During the 1993 NBCAM, President Clinton proclaimed the third Friday in October to be “National Mammography Day” and urged companies, clinics, and radiologists to provide free or discounted screening on that special day.
Today, the global breast cancer awareness month is a rallying point for nonprofit organisations, government agencies, and medical societies to work together to promote breast cancer awareness. Globally, breast cancer is the most common cancer affecting women. In 2018 more than two million new cases were reported worldwide.
The colour Pink for breast cancer awareness. The major international symbol of Breast Cancer Awareness Month is the colour pink. In the 1990s the pink ribbon stood as the primary emblem of support. In the early 1990s, a woman named Charlotte Haley, the granddaughter, sister, and mother of women who had battled breast cancer, began making peach ribbons by hand. She passed out thousands of ribbons with a card that read: “The National Cancer Institute annual budget is $1.8 billion, only five per cent goes for cancer prevention. Help us wake up our legislators and America by wearing this ribbon.”
The word spread and Haley was asked by corporations and media outlets for permission to feature her ribbon and message, but she declined, believing they were too corporate. Self magazine persisted, and based on Self’s lawyer’s insistence that they change the color of the ribbon, the pink ribbon was born. In conjunction with Breast Cancer Awareness Month in October 1992, cosmetics giant Estée Lauder shared the pink ribbon-a new symbol of hope and strength for those affected by breast cancer—through its nationwide cosmetics counters for the first time. But Susan G. Komen, then known as the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation, helped pink ribbons go mainstream. Although the foundation had been handing out bright pink visors to breast cancer survivors running in its Race for the Cure since late 1990, they adopted pink ribbons in a fall 1991 — just a few months after Irons’ appearance at the Tony Awards. Komen gave out similar pink ribbons to every participant in its New York City Race for the Cure®. This was truly the first use of the pink ribbon. The colour pink is now used in several areas during the month October- on clothing, posters, and Internet Web sites, to demonstrate individual and collective awareness of breast cancer. In Ghana it will be very useful to have polyphenol-rich cocoa products festooned with customised pink ribbons. In 2000 Estée Lauder, Inc., a fragrance and cosmetics company, launched Global Illumination, a project in which major global landmarks are illuminated by pink light for one or more days in October in support of Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Illuminated landmarks have included the Sydney Opera House, Niagara Falls, the Brandenburg Gate, the Empire State Building, the Taipei 101 building, and the Tower of London.
In 2020, female breast cancer became the most commonly diagnosed cancer type globally: about 2.26 million women were diagnosed with breast cancer, and about 685 000 women died from the disease. As of the end of 2020, there were 7.8 million women alive who were diagnosed with breast cancer in the past five years, making it the world’s most prevalent cancer. Nevertheless, when found early, and if adequate diagnosis and treatment are available, there is a good chance that breast cancer can be cured. WHO promotes comprehensive breast cancer control programmes as part of national cancer control plans. The WHO encourages countries to use the Breast Cancer Awareness Month to increase support for the awareness, early detection, treatment, and palliative care of this disease.
Most patients with breast cancer have a good prognosis or a high likelihood of long-term survival if the cancer is detected at an early stage and the patients have access to the correct treatment. Therefore, projects to develop and implement effective screening methods and programmes are essential to reduce the high mortality due to breast cancer, not only in high-income countries but worldwide (IARC 2023).
Reduce your risk of breast cancer by making better behavioural choices which include maintaining a healthy weight, staying physically active, avoiding harmful use of alcohol, breastfeeding, quitting tobacco use and avoiding exposure to tobacco smoke, avoiding the prolonged use of hormones, and avoiding excessive exposure to radiation. Symptoms of breast cancer include change in nipple appearance or alteration in the skin surrounding the nipple (areola), bloody or abnormal nipple, discharge, a lump or thickening in the breast change in breast colour, pitting of the breast skin, breast or nipple pain. There are many reasons for lumps to develop in the breast, most of which are not cancer. As many as 90 per cent of breast masses are not cancerous. Non-cancerous breast abnormalities include benign masses like fibroadenomas and cysts as well as infections. It is important to promptly seek medical attention if you notice any of these changes.
By Dr. Edward O. Amporful
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The writer is the Chief Pharmacist, Cocoa Clinic
