 The Ministry of Health, Wellness and Early Affairs this October is spearheading activities in observance of breast cancer awareness month. The World Health Organization reported that in 2020, there were 2.3 million women diagnosed with breast cancer and 685,000 deaths globally. At the end of 2020, there were 7.8 million women alive who were diagnosed with breast cancer in the past 5 years, making it the world's most prevalent cancer. Breast cancer is not a transmissible or infectious disease. Unlike some cancers that have infection-related causes such as the human papilloma virus, HPV infection and cervical cancer, there are no known viral or bacterial infections linked to the development of breast cancer. During a panel discussion aired on NTN oncologist Dr. Owen Gabriel explained that breast cancer accounts for one in every 4 cancer diagnoses and one in every 6 cancer deaths as a result of breast cancer. Very young women tend to develop lumps in the breast, which could be just cysts, a sac filled with fluid, or a fibrolyoma which is a rubbery type of lump similar in some respects to maybe a cancerous lump. But breast cancer is not particularly prevalent in the young age group. That is below age 40, in the average age of breast cancer diagnosis, 62 years. However, in St. Lucia, we will see that that age is actually lower than 62, unfortunately. So it's important for us at a very early age to be aware of those changes in the breast and what kinds of changes that are important to see about. To consult your healthcare provider, I'll be a nurse in the community, the family nurse practitioner, any healthcare provider, the idea of a person must understand their breast and I see both men and women in that respect because there's a fallacy out there that men don't get breast cancer and they do. We've had quite a few men in St. Lucia who have had breast cancer. So we need to know our bodies. Approximately half of breast cancers develop in women who have no identifiable breast cancer risk factor other than the gender, female and age over 40 years. Certain factors which increase the risk of breast cancer include increasing age, obesity, harmful use of alcohol, family history of breast cancer, history of radiation exposure, reproductive history such as at the age that menstrual periods began and age at first pregnancy, tobacco use and post-menopausal hormone therapy. Dr. Gabriel explaining the importance of early intervention urged members of the public to conduct regular self-examinations. You look at either size of the breast, sometimes that breast is larger, sometimes there's a protruding mass. You look at the shape of the breast, you know, in the shape of the breast, you can see the, you know, the nipple is in its normal position, sometimes a pulled-in nipple might indicate that there might be both of a lump inside of the breast. You look at the color of the skin and as you rightly alluded to, you know, changes in the skin texture will let us know that if there's dimpling of the skin, if there is on the skin, these are usually more advanced manifestations of breast cancer, that that cancer is not just, you know, restricted to the breast tissue. A lump is actually the most important manifestation of breast cancer, but the lump has specific characteristics that would be different to a benign, when I say benign, a non-cancerous lump, because you can have non-cancerous lumps like cysts and thyroid anomalies. So that lump is very hard, very irregular. It's sometimes not easily movable, you know, under the skin of the breast. On Colleges, Dr. Owen Gabriel.