Even as Nigeria has the highest cancer death rate in Africa, Breast Cancer still constitutes a major public health issue globally with over 1 million new cases diagnosed annually, resulting in over 400,000 annual deaths and about 4.4 million women living with the disease.

Despite the alarming pieces of statistic, a large number of women in Nigeria are still not aware of the risks they bear, mainly due to lack of awareness, poverty, and general lack of availability of equipment and personnel.

The Breast Cancer Awareness Month, marked in countries across the world every October, helps to increase attention and support for the awareness, early detection and treatment as well as palliative care of this disease.

Breast cancer is by far the most common cancer in women worldwide, both in the developed and developing countries. It is recorded as the second leading cause of death in women worldwide. Only lung cancer kills more women each year.

85 per cent of women who have breast cancer do not have a family history of breast cancer, affecting one in eight women during their lives.

Cancer is not just a health issue; it has a far reaching social and economic implication, which is why we need to encourage a sister, mother, cousin or friend to get the necessary life saving mammogram, and routinely conduct regular monthly self breast examinations.

Currently there is no sufficient knowledge on the causes of breast cancer; therefore, early detection of the disease remains the cornerstone of breastcancer control. When breast cancer is detected early, and if adequate diagnosis and treatment are available, there is a good chance that breast cancercan be cured. If detected late, however, curative treatment is often no longer an option. In such cases, palliative care to relieve the suffering of patients and their families is needed.

National Breast Cancer Awareness Month is a chance to raise awareness about the importance of early detection of breast cancer. Make a difference! Spread the word about mammograms and encourage communities, organizations, families, and individuals to get involved.

We need to use this opportunity to spread the word about steps women can take to detect breast cancerearly, by simply making healthy lifestyle changes to maintain overall health and well being, and more importantly, practice self-breast examinations every month in order to detect any unfamiliar changes in the breast that can prevent the deadly disease,Breast Cancer, if taken seriously.

Spread the word, think Pink!