Some Truths About Breast Cancer

by Naomi Miller, Ph.D., LCSW

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month

As a Breast Cancer Advocate for the National Breast Cancer Coalition (NBCC), I would like to share with you the following facts:

  Breast cancer is the most common cancer for women in the U.S. and its third leading cause of death.

Over 40,000 women and 450 men die of breast cancer each year.

Treatment over the last twenty years has improved considerably yet mortality rates have not changed significantly.

The mortality rate for African American women is higher than for any other group.

While many young women contract breast cancer the average age of diagnosis is sixty-one.

Seventy-five percent of women who develop breast cancer have no family history.

The lifetime risk of developing breast cancer is one in eight.

All breast cancers are not the same. Therefore treatment has to be individualized.  One size does not fit all.  More treatment is not necessarily better treatment.

Women (and men) do not die of having cancer in their breast.  Rather they die of metastasis, which occurs when the cancer spreads to vital organs.

Why and how metastasis occurs is still not clear.  In their goal to eradicate breast cancer by 2020, NBCC is seeking to focus research on further understanding the causes of metastasis as well as of prevention. They are working on the development of a breast cancer vaccine.

Please check out their website - www.breastcancerdeadline2020.org  - and make sure you have an annual check-up, especially if you are over forty.

Naomi Miller, Ph.D., LCSW has been treating individuals, couples and children for over thirty years as well as helping breast cancer patients and their families deal with the emotional impact of the disease.  Her specialties include eating disorders, sexual dysfunctions, couples therapy and play therapy for children. She is also trained in CBT and EMDR.

Naomi Miller, Ph.D., LCSW