Why Prevention?

The Breast Cancer Fund was founded in 1992 in response to the public health crisis of breast cancer.  We’ve seen the breast cancer movement accomplish some remarkable things in recent years: breast cancer awareness is everywhere, earlier detection has improved, and more women have access to quality care.  But incidence continues to rise dramatically and we need to focus efforts on PREVENTION.

The facts:

 Today in the United States, a woman's lifetime risk for breast cancer is more than one in eight. 

 When all known risk factors and characteristics are added together, including family history, genetics, smoking and obesity, more than 50 percent of breast cancer cases remain unexplained.

 At the same time that breast cancer rates have tripled, an estimated 100,000 synthetic chemicals have been registered for use in the United States.  Less than 10 percent of these chemicals have been fully tested for their effects on human health.  

 Because many of these chemicals accumulate in body fat and remain in breast tissue for decades, every woman, man and child now carries synthetic chemicals—including some that have been found to induce mammary tumors in laboratory research—in their breasts and bodies.
   
The Breast Cancer Fund works to identify – and advocate for elimination of – the environmental and other preventable causes of the disease.

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