Dean Frazier's Message Honoring Breast Cancer Awareness Month 2024

As Breast Cancer Awareness Month comes to a close, we must remind ourselves that the crucial work we do to raise awareness about this all-too-common disease—especially encouraging women to get screened and advocating for research funding—mustn’t stop on October 31. We need to think of this cause as a year-round, full-time endeavor, because even though October comes to an end, breast cancer doesn’t—at least not yet.

In fact, there are troubling trends in the latest data from the American Cancer Society (ACS). Breast cancer mortality has fallen 44% for women in general since 1989—but hasn’t budged for American Indian and Alaska Native women. And breast cancer incidence is rising, with the sharpest increases among Asian American and Pacific Islander women and women under 50—groups that get regular mammograms at relatively low rates. In addition, breast cancer mortality is 38% higher for Black women than for white women, the ACS reported, even though they have a 5% lower incidence of the disease.

These new and persistent disparities show that we still have much work to do. Most importantly, we must encourage women 40 and older to get annual mammograms and to ascertain their breast density. Dense breasts, which are common, make it more difficult to detect abnormal cells through mammography and may require additional diagnostic imaging. As a breast cancer survivor myself, I now know that the fact that I have dense breasts may have camouflaged my cancerous cells and contributed to my own later diagnosis.

As of September, a new rule from the Food and Drug Administration requires all mammography facilities to inform patients whether they have or do not have dense breasts. I am immensely grateful that this new rule is in place and that I’m able to help spread this important message. I appeared recently on CBS, ABC, and NBC News to talk about this issue—to explain what breast density is and why it’s important and to urge women to get screened.

This January will mark the end of my treatment, which began in 2022. For that milestone, for the excellent care I received, and for the endless support I’ve been the beneficiary of, I am most appreciative. Now—as a breast cancer survivor, a nurse, and the dean of our amazing institution—I consider it my mission to share my journey and to remind everyone about the importance of mammography and screening. And thanks to my platform as your dean, I’ve been able to share these life-saving messages with many, many more women and their loved ones than I otherwise would have been able to. For that, I am also grateful.

I invite you to peruse this special breast cancer awareness issue of our newsletter, which includes links to the news clips I mentioned above, my Breast Cancer Awareness message to the Columbia community, photos from this month’s breast cancer awareness events, and more.

Lorraine Frazier, RN, PhD, FAAN
Dean and Mary O’Neil Mundinger Professor
Senior Vice President, Columbia University Irving Medical Center