Breast Cancer Awareness Month officially begins Wednesday.

It's the month-long campaign, which happens every October, to increase awareness of the disease.

Breast cancer is the second most common kind of cancer in women, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

About one in eight women born today in the United States will get breast cancer at one point. Breast cancer is treatable, though. A mammogram — the screening test for breast cancer — can help find breast cancer early, when it's easier to treat.

Breast Cancer Awareness Month is a chance to raise awareness about the importance of early detection.

Breast cancer isn't just in women, either. Breast cancer in men is rare, but it does happen. In the U.S., about 1 percent of all breast cancer cases occur in men, according to the American Cancer Society.

In 2014, it's estimated that among men in the U.S., there will be 2,360 new cases of invasive breast cancer and 430 breast cancer deaths.

New breast cancer cases and death rates are much lower among men than women, studies show. The number of incidences in men is 1.3 per 100,000, and it's 120.9 per 100,000 in women. The death rate for men is 0.3 per 100,000 compared to 21.9 per 100,000 for women.

Warning signs and symptoms

Due to the use of regular mammography screening, most breast cancers in the U.S. are found at an early stage — before symptoms appear. Not all breast cancers are found through mammography, though.

There are warning signs, but they aren't the same for all women. The most common symptoms are a change in the look or feel of the breast, a change in the look or feel of the nipple and nipple discharge.

Other warning signs and symptoms are as follows:

  • Lump, hard knot or thickening inside the breast or underarm area
  • Swelling, warmth, redness or darkening of the breast
  • Change in the size or shape of the breast
  • Dimpling or puckering of the skin
  • Itchy, scaly sore or rash on the nipple
  • Pulling in of your nipple or other parts of the breast
  • Nipple discharge that starts suddenly
  • New pain in one spot that does not go away


Latest breast cancer research

From the 1940s until the 1980s, new cases of breast cancer in the U.S. increase by a little more than 1 percent each year. In the 1980s, that rate grew and then leveled off during the 1990s.

New breast cancer case rates dropped in the early 2000s and has remained stable since 2004.

Since 1990, breast cancer mortality rate has decreased by 34 percent, according to numbers by the American Cancer Society.