The successes of breast cancer research from 1992 to today
The occasion was the 25th birthday of the international campaign against breast health and support for scientific research to find a definitive cure for cancer soon.
Why in Evelyn H. Lauder's dreams "one day women would stop dying of breast cancer":
Advances in breast cancer research over the past 25 years and the new survival rate
The goal of the worldwide campaign is to make breast cancer, which affected about 50,000 women in Italy in 2017, 100% curable. The results obtained over the past 25 years are undoubtedly noteworthy.
Breast cancer in Italy affects about 1 in 8 women, still confirming itself as the most common female cancer today. Thanks to advances in research, however, this neoplasm no longer represents as high a risk to life as it was 25 years ago.
Thanks to preventive examinations and thanks to treatments that, if followed within 5 years of diagnosis, have a high probability of success, the percentage of women who manage to defeat the disease has grown to 87%.
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Breast self-examination: how, when, why Breast cancer prevention: how to do it and why it is essential to any e October, breast cancer prevention monthBut the research certainly has no intention of claiming victory. Niccolò Contucci, AIRC General Manager and spokesperson for the fight against breast cancer in Italy, remembers: "To make breast cancer increasingly treatable, a huge, continuous and collective effort is needed in support of research, and the last mile is always the most difficult."
Of the same thought is the actress Alessandra Mastronardi, Italian godmother of this year's Breast Cancer Campaign: "This year we want to give a positive message to all women, who can look to their future with determination and a smile knowing that research is constantly working to improve our health".
To win its number one battle, the Italian Association for Cancer Research has allocated, in 2017 alone, over 10 million euros to finance 66 projects and 20 scholarships for medical training in this area, with the aim of obtain the desired result in the shortest possible time.
As Federico Caligaris Cappio, Scientific Director of AIRC explains, the research is committed on three different fronts: ever deeper knowledge of cellular transformation, development of increasingly targeted drugs and identification of new screening tools for early diagnosis.
From quadrantectomy, the first form of "intervention introduced in the 80s in Italy by fertility.
Research is making great strides in "helping women who have to live with this pathology to fight it and to counteract the onset of relapses but, as Rosalba Reggio recalls, we must not forget how everything starts with prevention:"I have always believed strongly in prevention, and it is with a periodic check-up that I discovered that I have breast cancer. I never thought: why me? I am proud of my reaction, it was difficult but I think I faced it with clarity and in the most serene way possible. I don't feel changed, but I know it was a tough test that I was able to face”.
From "Breast Cancer Awareness Campaign" to "Breast Cancer Campaign": the evolution of the name follows that of research
It's time to focus on the future. This is the message launched by the "re-naming" wanted by Estée Lauder Companies, which has chosen to eliminate the word Awareness, or Awareness, to indicate that the awareness phase is now over and it is time to focus on the definitive resolution of the problem.
The BCA (Breast Cancer Awareness) then evolves into BCC (Breast Cancer Campaign) and is ready to win the final battle.
The pink ribbon was also involved in this change; in fact, in the image of the 2017 campaign it appears worn and wrinkled, as if it had taken part in a battle that has lasted for 25 years. The sale of the pink ribbons resulted in as much as 70 million dollars to finance the research.
As in every month of October, starting from that of 1992, which saw the birth of the former BCA, this year too the sale of products began, the revenues of which will be destined for research.