a bold goal

Komen is setting an aggressive goal — a bold goal — to reduce the current number of breast-cancer deaths in the U.S. by 50 percent within the next decade.This goal intends to find cures for aggressive and metastatic breast cancers, and to improve outcomes for low-income and uninsured women, women of color and other vulnerable populations that face barriers to breast-cancer care.

Our bold goal brings a heightened focus and strategy to those

objectives, initiating comprehensive approaches to reduce deaths from breast cancer by further leveraging our strengths in science and community-health outreach/advocacy.The bold goal involves the following:

1.An enhanced focus on research that will advance treatments for aggressive

and metastatic breast cancer; unlock the earliest possible detection of breast cancer to prevent its recurrence and/or spread; and leverage next-generation

technology to detect — and treat — breast cancer at the very earliest stages. 2. Addressing racial and ethnic disparities, increasing access to and timely utilization of quality breast-cancer care; and improving breast-cancer outcomes through patient navigation.

We’re focused on the number of deaths — the more than 40,000 women and men who currently die of breast cancer every year in America.That number has stayed constant for many years, despite increased education and early detection, and significant advances in breast-cancer treatment.

While the death rate has declined steadily — from 32 deaths per 100,000 in 1982 to 20 deaths per 100,000 in 2013 — 40,000 women and men still die each year from breast cancer, and that is what we want to change.

We can reduce the current numbers of deaths by focusing on better treatments for aggressive and metastatic breast cancer; detecting breast cancer and breast-cancer recurrence earlier; and working to overcome the socioeconomic, financial, geographic and cultural issues that serve as barriers to quality care for large numbers of women and men.

PROGRESS WE HAVE MADE

The progress against breast cancer has been stunning since Komen’s founding in 1982.

The five-year relative survival for localized breast cancer is 99 percent.This means women with localized breast cancer are, on average, 99 percent as likely as women in

the general population to live five years beyond their diagnoses.These rates are averages and vary depending on a person’s diagnosis and treatment.This compares to a survival rate of 67 percent in 1982.

Growing knowledge about breast cancer has led to new therapies and targeted treatments that have improved survivability for many people and replaced the one-size-fits-all protocols of treatment three decades ago.

We have learned more about metastatic disease and aggressive forms of breast cancer, although there is much more to be done to develop effective therapies for these forms and stages of breast cancer.

Thousands of Komen-funded communitybased programs have helped to remove many of the financial, medical, geographic and psychosocial barriers to care that can affect survivability of breast cancer.

Komen advocacy helped improve access to care for low-income and uninsured women through the Breast and Cervical Cancer Early Detection Program; introduced mammography safety and quality standards; and helped significantly increase federal breast-cancerresearch funding.

We’ve learned about and educated millions on the importance of early detection, timely diagnosis and effective treatments that are proven to save lives.

Millions of people are now able to talk openly about breast cancer — a major difference from a time when women dealt with breast cancer in silence and even shame.

By removing the stigma of breast cancer, we also removed some of the barriers — people are more willing to seek care and adhere to treatment because they saw others who had survived or were doing the same thing.

There is still a tremendous need to educate women and men about breast-cancer risk and options for their care if and when they are diagnosed.This is why we will always work to give people the information that can help them understand their personal risk for breast cancer, the resources available to them if they need help and the evidence-based information that can help them make decisions about their care, along with their health care providers.

Eliminating all breast-cancer deaths is still our vision and always will be but likely won’t be achievable in the next 10 years. Rather than set a lofty but unrealistic goal, we have announced a strategy that is aggressive but — more importantly — achievable in that time frame.