As part of National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, SIUC Student Health Services is sponsoring an on-campus display to remind students of two facts:College-age women are susceptible to breast cancer, and early detection is the key to survival.

The Student Health Services has a display in the Student Health Center in the Student Center for the duration of October with brochures and handouts about breast cancer.

The display features a miniature model of a breast where women can practice feeling for lumps. Student Health Services is also distributing pink ribbons, the emblem for National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and waterproof cards to hang in the shower that explain the self-examination process.

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The best time for a woman to give a self examination is while she is in the shower, Chris Labyk, coordinator for Student Health Services, said. More than 90 percent of women who find lumps in their breast find them while in they are in the shower.

If detected early, breast cancer often can be treated effectively with surgery that preserves the breast, followed by radiation therapy. Five-year survival after treatment for early-stage breast cancer is more than 97 percent, according to the National Alliance of Breast Cancer.

Early detection is the most important factor in preventing breast cancer, Beth Britton, Southern Illinois branch secretary for the American Cancer Society, said. If a woman can catch breast cancer in its early stages, her chances of survival are greatly increased.

There is a mammography center at Memorial Hospital of Carbondale available to women who discover a lump.

Symptoms for breast cancer include a lump or thickening in the breast or armpit, a change in the size or shape of the breast, discharge from the nipple and a change in color or texture of the breast or nipple.

Many women ignore bodily changes which can be indicators of breast cancer, Labyk said. Most women are more familiar with their breasts than the doctor is, and they can notice changes the doctor might not notice. It is important that they pay attention to these changes.

The Department of Nutrition at the Harvard School of Public Health published a study of certain risk factors that seem to increase a woman’s risk of developing breast cancer. The study showed that a high-calorie, high-cholesterol diet, increased weight gain after the age of 18 and daily alcohol consumption increase a woman’s chance of breast cancer. The study also determined that taller women were at a greater risk for breast cancer.

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Labyk said women with a family history of breast cancer, women who have never had children and women who smoke are at a higher risk of developing the disease.

Every 12 minutes, four women will find out they have breast cancer and one woman will die from breast cancer, according to statistics released by the Alliance.

One out of nine women in the United States will develop breast cancer in her lifetime, Labyk said.

That is a very startling statistic when you think about it, Labyk said.

Breast cancer is the most common form of cancer in women in the United States. In 1997, 180,200 new cases of female breast cancer will be diagnosed, and 43,900 women will die from the disease. Breast cancer is the second leading cause of cancer death for all women, and the leading cause of cancer death in all women between the ages of 40 and 55, according to the Alliance.

Thanks to a better public awareness and detection of breast cancer, more cases are being diagnosed early on, Britton said. And early detection is the most important factor in effectively treating breast cancer.