(WXYZ) — October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month and metro Detroit has various activities planned to celebrate the survivors, and ones currently battling the disease as well as to honor the individuals who lost their fight against breast cancer, which is the most common type of cancer among American women.
That’s why when 32-year-old Nicole Fenton was first diagnosed with breast cancer a little over a year ago. She was shocked because there was no family history of cancer and to this day, Nicole leads an active and healthy lifestyle.
According to the National Breast Cancer Foundation, on average, every 2 minutes a woman is diagnosed with breast cancer in the US.
In fact, it is estimated that in 2021, approximately 30% of all new women's cancer diagnoses will be breast cancer.
Meanwhile, Dr. Jennifer Beebe-Dimmer, an Oncology professor at Wayne State University says the best way to fight this disease is early screening.
“Recently we’ve seen more widespread availability of 3D mammography, which allows radiologists to discover these tumors earlier, so the prognosis is much better if it's caught early,” says Dr. Dimmer.
With medical science evolving constantly, Dr. Dimmer also says there are more treatment options.
“Recently we had some progress, particularly with women that have BRCA1 or 2 mutations and there is a new drug Olaparib that’s available for metastatic breast cancer that have one of these gene mutations.
The latest study shows 90% of all women diagnosed with breast cancer will live beyond five years, making it a treatable disease as long as both men and women get screened regularly.
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