October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month
Breast cancer cases are rising, making awareness and early detection more critical than ever.
October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month.
It’s estimated that over 42 thousand women and over 500 men will die this year in the United States from breast cancer.
Teaching professor Dr. Bradley Creamer with the KCU Medical School in Joplin told Newstalk KZRG what you should do to help detect breast cancer at early stages”:
“A lot of folks are aware of how to screen themselves for changes in their breast tissue. This is a good idea to do, you know, on a regular basis, just keeping in mind what things normally feel like in the breast tissue and any small changes, any abnormalities that you might notice, those are going to be, again, things that should be looked at by your physician.
Breast cancer awareness efforts continue to emphasize self-screening and professional mammograms annually.
Self-exams for lumps, discharge, redness, or swelling help catch early signs before clinical symptoms appear
Mammograms are recommended yearly or as advised by doctors to detect cancer before symptoms develop
Dr. Creamer stresses that early detection is the biggest actionable step individuals can take to reduce risk
Awareness campaigns aim to educate all demographics, including men, who often diagnose late due to low screening awareness
Joplin’s KCU Medical School is training physicians in this region that will hopefully stay in the region.
Teaching professor Dr. Bradley Creamer told Newstalk KZRG what he is using in his teaching:
“At KCU, we’re focused on some of the research side of things. In me specifically, I’ve got a lab here where we are focused on understanding what changes are occurring in breast cancer or in the tissues that are part of breast cancer that allows them to escape treatment, that allows them to metastasize. And so we’re working on training students as well to understand those causes, understand the cellular side of things, and how treatments can be used effectively for patients.”