Breast Cancer Awareness Month Continues 40th Anniversary With New Study

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(Columbus) – This October, the American Cancer Society (ACS) commemorates the 40th anniversary of the founding of Breast Cancer Awareness Month. In 1985, ACS co-led the effort to start Breast Cancer Awareness Month as a week-long campaign to educate women about the importance of early screening and routine mammograms for breast cancer detection and treatment.  

While over the past three decades, the breast cancer death rate has dropped by 44% because of advances in treatment and early detection, a result of increased awareness and better treatments, the American Cancer society released Lobular Breast Cancer Statistics, 2025, a report on occurrence and outcomes in the United States for this subtype of breast cancer.  

Lobular Breast Cancer Statistics, 2025 

Findings show an estimated 33,600 women will be diagnosed with lobular breast cancer or invasive lobular carcinoma (ILC) this year. Ranked separately, the disease would be the seventh most common cancer among women in the U.S. The report also finds that incidence rates for ILC have increased more steeply (2.8% per year) than all other breast cancers combined (0.8% per year) from 2012 to 2021. The report is to be published in the journal Cancer. 

“Although lobular breast cancer accounts for a little over 10% of all breast cancers, the sheer number of new diagnoses each year makes this disease important to understand,” said Angela Giaquinto, MSPH, associate scientist, cancer surveillance research at the American Cancer Society, and lead author of the report. “Also, survival rates beyond seven years are significantly lower for ILC than the most common type of breast cancer, highlighting the pressing need for prevention and early detection strategies targeting this subtype to be brought to the forefront.” 

ILC originates in the lobules, the milk-producing glands in the breast. According to study authors, the disease is typically combined with the most common subtype — invasive ductal carcinoma — in research and clinical trials, masking many unique and important characteristics, including how the cancer appears and grows. For example, ILC tumors grow in a linear or dispersed pattern, instead of forming a lump typical of other breast cancers. This can contribute to delayed detection by patients and doctors, treatment challenges, and poorer long-term prognosis for advanced disease. 

Read more about the study here: https://pressroom.cancer.org/lobular-breast-cancer.   

Join the Making Strides movement in Columbus on Sunday, Oct. 26 

For more than 30 years, the American Cancer Society Making Strides Against Breast Cancer has united communities in the nation’s largest movement to end breast cancer as we know it, for everyone. This year, Making Strides Against Breast Cancer of Cincinnati will take place on Sunday, October 26 at Genoa Park.   

• The event, free and open to the public, will begin at 10am. Before the walk, there will be music, a warm-up, and survivor recognition.  The walk will begin at 11am and there are 5K and 1-mile options.  
• Registration and additional information are available at MakingStridesWalk.org/Columbus.   
• There will be a kids zone, a survivor area, food trucks, photo opportunities, and live entertainment until 2pm.  

Making Strides Against Breast Cancer is a celebration of courage and hope, a movement uniting the community to end breast cancer as we know it, for everyone. Making Strides embraces and supports individuals of all genders and experiences, from survivors and thrivers to those living with metastatic breast cancer, male survivors, and previvors (people at higher risk).    

Making Strides funds lifesaving breast cancer research and is committed to advancing health equity through essential programs and services. All people have a fair and just opportunity to live a longer, healthier life free from breast cancer.   Facts about breast cancer:  

• Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women in the US, after skin cancer.  
• However, breast cancer incidence is still rising each year, impacting certain groups of women more than others.   
• Black women have a 38% higher likelihood of dying from breast cancer compared to white women, despite a 5% lower likelihood of being diagnosed.   
• Black women have the lowest survival for every known stage of diagnosis, largely reflecting differences in access to care.   
• 316,950 women and 2,800 men are estimated to be diagnosed with breast cancer in the US in 2025.  

In 2025, Breast Cancer Awareness Month celebrates 40 years 

According to the ACS’s Cancer Facts & Figures 2025 report, approximately 1 in 8 women in the U.S. will be diagnosed with invasive breast cancer during their lifetime, and 1 in 43 will die from the disease. However, there has been tremendous progress; ACS researchers project that by 2035, the number of breast cancer survivors will reach 5.3 million.  

Today, ACS encourages everyone to turn awareness into action in the continued mission of ending breast cancer as we know it. To combat the disease and support both individuals and their families going through a diagnosis, ACS funds research that advances prevention and treatment efforts, advocates for equitable access to care, and provides programs, services, and science-based cancer information, helping to ensure that no one faces breast cancer—or any cancer—alone.  

For the past four decades, ACS researchers and scientists have been an integral part of breast cancer therapy breakthroughs:  

1980s-1990 – BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes are discovered, and the FDA approves the drug Herceptin  

2000s – Breast cancer stem cells are identified  
2010s – Triple-negative breast cancer immunotherapy approved  

2020s – mRNA-based breast cancer vaccines show promise, and liquid biopsies projected to expand  

“Due in part to the work of the American Cancer Society, 3 in 4 women are now up to date on screening, which is the greatest reason mortality has reduced,” said Kamal. “But 1 in 4 are not up to date, and we need to close that gap. That’s why this October, we’re encouraging everyone to do more than wear pink, to go beyond ribbons and awareness, to take action. Because every action counts.”