NICK GOSNELL
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month and Dr. Sawsan Amireh, an oncologist with the Chalmers Cancer Center at Hutchinson Regional Healthcare System notes that breast cancer is quite common for women in the United States.
"It is the most common cancer in the United States," Dr. Amireh said. "Each year, there are around 300,000 new breast cancer diagnoses. There's around 40,000 deaths because of breast cancer that occurse each year."
Early detection is key to helping mitigate the risk of breast cancer for women.
"The mortality for breast cancer over the past three years has improved dramatically," Dr. Amireh said. "A big component of that is related to early screening and early detection of breast cancer. There are multiple studies and meta analyses that showed that actually doing screening can reduce the risk of death from breast cancer by 20 to 30%."
In May 2023, the United States Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) issued new draft recommendations for breast cancer screening.
"They are probably going to be changing the recommendations," Dr. Amireh said. "Now, they are going to recommend breast cancer screening mammograms every one to two years even for women who are less than 50, starting at the age of 40 years old."
When breast cancer is caught early while still localized, it is extremely curable.
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