Breast Cancer Awareness Month: Caring Through Every Chapter

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, a time when pink ribbons appear across our communities as symbols of awareness, support and hope.

Behind every ribbon, though, is a person.

A person scheduling a mammogram. Someone waiting for test results. Someone hearing the words “breast cancer” for the first time. Someone beginning treatment, celebrating the end of it, living with metastatic disease, or facing difficult decisions about what comes next.

And surrounding each of them are families, friends and healthcare professionals walking alongside them.

At Pathways, oncology is a specialty with which we work closely through both palliative and hospice care. We deeply value our relationships with the cancer centers, oncology practices, physicians, nurses and specialized clinics throughout Northern Colorado caring for people affected by cancer.

The numbers remind us why October matters

Breast cancer remains the most common cancer among women in the United States other than skin cancer. Approximately 1 in 8 women will be diagnosed with breast cancer during her lifetime.

While breast cancer overwhelmingly affects women, it is not exclusively a women’s disease. The American Cancer Society estimates that in 2026, 321,910 women and 2,670 men will be diagnosed with invasive breast cancer in the United States. An estimated 42,670 people, including approximately 530 men, will die from the disease this year.

Because breast cancer awareness and messaging so often center on women, it is especially important to remember that men can and do develop breast cancer, too. Awareness matters for everyone.

These numbers represent tremendous progress still to be made. More importantly, they represent people and families navigating an experience they never expected.

This October, we honor all those diagnosed with breast cancer, the families and friends who walk alongside them, the healthcare professionals who care for them, and those whose lives have been lost to the disease.

Palliative care can be part of cancer care

One misconception we continue working to change is that palliative care means treatment has stopped.

It does not.

Palliative care can be provided alongside cancer treatment and can help people manage pain, fatigue, nausea and other symptoms, as well as the emotional, social and practical challenges that can accompany serious illness.

For someone living with cancer, adding palliative care can simply mean adding another layer of support focused on quality of life.

When the journey changes

We hope for earlier detection. We hope for increasingly effective treatments. We celebrate survivors, research breakthroughs and every person working toward a cure.

We also recognize another reality.

Sometimes, despite extraordinary treatment, determination and care, cancer progresses.

When a person reaches a point where the goals of care shift toward comfort and quality of life at the end of life, hospice can surround the patient and family with specialized medical care, symptom management, emotional and spiritual support, caregiver education and presence.

There is profound dignity in caring for someone through this part of the journey, too.

During Breast Cancer Awareness Month, we recognize those currently undergoing treatment, those living beyond a diagnosis, those living with advanced or metastatic disease, those we have lost, the loved ones walking beside them, and the healthcare professionals who devote their lives to their care.

We will continue hoping for a future in which fewer people hear the words “you have breast cancer.”

And until that future arrives, we will be honored to walk alongside the people and families who choose Pathways, wherever they are in their journey.

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