Breast Cancer Awareness Month ‘Increases The Conversation’

Now that it's October, you'll start seeing pink all over the place for Breast Cancer Awareness month.

Dr. Mignonne Morrell with the LSU Health New Orleans School of Medicine is also an Academic Director of Breast Imaging. She says the pink awareness month helps to educate people about the disease, then people donate money to the cause.

"So then you have increased funding for research in trying to develop new treatments for breast cancer," said Morrell.

The American Cancer Society recommends women age 40 and older should have a mammogram every year and should continue to do so for as long as they are in good health.

Morrell says Breast Cancer awareness month also helps educate women on when they should have a mammogram and a clinical breast exam.

"And this increases the conversation and curiosity," said Morrell. "It also provides them that information and they seek out treatment."

Morrell says right now there are more than 2.5 million people in the U.S. that have a history of breast cancer. She says the more you increase the conversation about the disease, the more likely a woman is to encounter someone who caught it at an early stage — which is the goal of breast cancer screening.

"Find the breast cancer at a treatable stage where the medicine is more effective and less harmful to the patient," said Morrell.