Breast Cancer Network of Strength was started by Mimi Kaplan and Ann Marcou.

Attitudes towards breast cancer have changed quite a lot over the past three decades, a fact evidenced by the outpouring of response when stars such as Olivia Newton-John, Kylie Minogue, and, most recently, Christina Applegate, went public with their personal struggles with the disease. But this change in attitude is also reflected in many other ways and not least in the adoption of a new name for the patient advocacy and support organization that until now called itself Y-ME? Tomorrow, a gala event held at the Fairmont Hotel in Chicago will celebrate Breast Cancer Awareness Month and the evolution of Y-ME, 30 years on, into the Breast Cancer Network of Strength-a change they hope that will better communicate the organization’s mission to promote a proactive, engaged and positive approach to fighting breast cancer.

Started in 1978 by librarian Mimi Kaplan and social worker Ann Marcou (both breast cancer patients hailing from Chicago), the newly named Breast Cancer Network of Strength includes a 24-hour hotline with interpreters in 150 languages, as well as an internet-based support system where breast cancer patients can share their stories. Breast Cancer Awareness Month (BCAM) has a slightly shorter history but the pink ribbons you have seen everywhere for the past two weeks (one of which you are hopefully wearing right now) are now a familiar sight worldwide.

Alongside a number of other organizations, deCODE genetics is working on the preventative side of matters via ongoing research into the genetic risk factors for breast cancer. Last week deCODE genetics launched deCODE BreastCancer^TM, a new tool for assessing risk of the common forms of breast cancer (that are also the result of environmental and lifestyle factors) and for targeting intensive screening and early detection for women at high risk of the disease. deCODE BreastCancer^TM aims to put the power of genetic risk assessment to work for the majority of women, complementing the use of tests for variants in the BRCA1&2 that cause rarer, highly familial forms of the disease.

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Breast Cancer Network of Strength