Supporters with Survivors ™

Susan G. Komen™, Maryland affiliate site Five Reasons for supporting Supporters with Survivors™ in the fight against Breast Cancer.
1. A woman living in the U.S. has a 1 in 8 chance of developing breast cancer in her lifetime.
2. A new case of breast cancer is diagnosed every 3 minutes.
3. Breast cancer kills more than 40,000 people a year, or one every 13 minutes.
4. No one knows what causes breast cancer, or how it can be prevented, and there is NO known cure.
5. Men can get breast cancer, too.
U.S. Statistics; American Cancer Society
Through your support, Supporters with Survivors™ donates to give access to care and help to find a cure for breast cancer. All funds received are donated directly to a Maryland based company. Our focus is on reaching the medically underserved low-income, minorities, the elderly, and under-insured populations. Funding is awarded to five areas of the breast cancer cause: awareness and education; screening and diagnosis; access to treatment; support services; and scientific research. Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women, but it can be successfully treated. The key? Early detection. Breast cancer is a type of cancer where cells in the breast tissue divide and grow without the normal control. About 80 percent of breast cancers originate in the mammary ducts, while about 20 percent arise in the lobules. Cancerous tumors in the breast usually grow very slowly so that by the time one is large enough to be felt as a lump, it may have been growing for as long as ten years. Though both boys and girls begin life with very similar breast tissue, men do not experience the same complex growth and development of the breasts that women do over time. At puberty, the high testosterone and low estrogen levels essentially stop breast development in males. While some milk ducts exist, they remain undeveloped, and lobules are most often absent. However, breast health problems, including cancer, remain a possibility. Male breast cancer is rare. In 2002 , the overall incidence of breast cancer in men was 1.2 per 100,000, compared to 133 per 100,000 in women. Differences in mortality were equally wide: 0.3 per 100,000 in men; 26 per 100,000 in women. There's been great progress over the last 30 years in identifying risk factors for breast cancer.So far, researchers know of more than 20 factors that increase the risk of the disease. Some of these risk factors increase risk a great deal. Others increase risk by only a small amount.Yet while there have certainly been great advances in our knowledge, its still not perfectly understood what ultimately causes breast cancer to develop. Its likely a combination of risk factors (many of which are still unknown) that together make cells in the breast turn cancerous. But exactly why a certain combination of factors might cause cancer in a particular woman and another combination would not is still unclear.This highlights one of the more important things women need to know about breast cancer: although there are steps nearly all women can take to lower their risk of the disease, no one woman has full control over whether she gets breast cancer or not. Many risk factors for the disease are still unknown and many are simply out of a womans control (such as getting older or having a family history of the disease).Women, though, should not feel helpless at the prospect of breast cancer. There is a lot that women can do to protect themselves from the disease. Leading a healthy lifestyle can help lower risk and getting regular screening tests can catch breast cancer early when its most treatable. Finally, having a general understanding of what factors may be increasing her risk can help a woman work with her health care provider to address concerns she has and develop an optimal breast health plan.