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.

Statistics from the American Cancer Society reveal that in 2015 alone, more than a quarter million women were diagnosed as having some form of breast cancer, with more than two thousand men also diagnosed. According to some statistics, approximately one in eight women may develop an invasive form of the disease.

Those stats alone make raising breast cancer awareness a crucial issue; for military women there is an additional concern. A 2009 Walter Reed Army Medical Center study found that women serving in the military have a slightly elevated risk of breast cancer.

Read more: https://militarybenefits.info/breast-cancer-awareness-month/#ixzz6183hTjQU

Department of Veterans Affairs Breast Cancer Awareness Efforts

VA efforts to support Breast Cancer Awareness Month include articles and micro-sites at the VA official site promoting early detection and providing resource links to government sites such as the Centers For Disease Control and Cancer.gov.