One in eight women will develop invasive breast cancer in her lifetime, and 40,450 women are expected to die from invasive breast cancer this year.

According to the American Cancer Society, breast cancer is also the most common cancer among US women, accounting for 29% of newly diagnosed cancers. More than 3.1 million US women with a history of breast cancer were alive on Jan. 1, 2014.

October is the month when the nation turns pink, showing their support and raising awareness about a deadly disease. Communities, families and friends lean on each other to face questions and challenges together. Breast cancer affects a lot of different people, including students on campus.

Sophomore Cindy Karamol knows this from personal experience; her grandmother lost her life to the cancer four years before Cindy was born.

“I need to get tested early. She died from it when she was 59,” Karamol said, even though she is only 22 years old.

“When I was a kid, the story I got told was this: it was probably 1981, and my grandma told my mom that she had a lump in her breast. My grandma was from a town where they don’t trust doctors but my grandma was a very anxious person. My mom, being my mom, she goes, ‘you’re going to the doctor,’ and my grandma goes ‘no, I’m fine.’ My mom took her to the doctor and she was diagnosed with breast cancer,” she said.

Karamol lost her grandfather to cancer in sixth grade, but as she got older and saw more pictures of her grandparents and parents together, she saw her grandmother differently.

“Then I could see where my mom was coming from, it was very hard to see anyone like that,” she said. “My grandfather died from bone and lung cancer. I saw him sick and I saw him pass away, and  from a young age I saw someone hurting that I loved so much, and it was sad and it was scary to see, and I didn’t like it. I don’t want to see anyone else going through it.”

From a medical standpoint, gynecologists like Dr. Roopa Meda can offer insightful advice and guidelines. She has a medical degree in obstetrics and gynecology, and works in the UH Samaritan Women’s Care branch of University Hospitals Samaritan Medical Center in Ashland, just off of Center Street.

“There are many different types of breast cancer that can originate in the duct, the gland, the skin, the nipple,” Dr. Meda said. “Some breast cancers can be genetic, and some are not.”

Since some breast cancers are genetic, there are certain criteria for screenings. The average college student is too young.

“The average age for a person who doesn’t have a family history of breast cancer to get screened is 40 years old. Unless you had a family history and your physician recommended it, you would be too young,” she said.

According to Dr. Meda, a lump would be evaluated by a number of criteria and factors, including the age of the patient, the lump’s location and characteristics (if it is cancerous or not), and then get either a mammogram or an MRI depending on what is found.

“Then you will further, based on characteristics of the studies, decide on what else you need to do, including a biopsy, a surgical sample usually done in Radiology,” she said.

When screening, physical exams, and mammograms are done, a diagnosis can be made. As a gynecologist, Dr. Meda said she doesn’t do the treatment herself because it is done by an “expert team of breast care surgeons, cancer oncologist specialists, and they formulate a treatment plan based on the stage of the cancer.”

If all goes well, people can survive this cancer and continue to live their lives, even though it may not be quite the same. Sophomore journalism major Renee Borcas’ mom is a breast cancer survivor and is 62 years old now.

Although her mom had breast cancer before Renee was born, she said it still affected her life in other ways.

“It put her off having kids for a while, she had to wait longer than she wanted to.”

Her mother didn’t say anything about it until junior year of highschool.

“It wasn’t a big health concern to me because it wasn’t supposed to be a hereditary case. No one else in my family has had it. But it’s definitely one of those things in the back of my mind,” she said.

Borcas grew up with the cancer awareness that is associated with the month of October.

“We would always do Relay for Life stuff growing up,” she said. “Our high school had a ‘pink out’ football game for breast cancer awareness. We had charity kickball games. My grade school principal ended up dying from cancer. Cancer in general seemed to affect people.”

Part of her awareness comes from her community being so closely knit together. Karamol’s awareness comes from family. Both students are aware of being screened early and being careful and watchful in general. However, both of them notice this part of their life is missing from the college community.

“I don’t see much awareness of it here, I don’t think kids want to be aware of it. Like, do you ever see posters around here? We see more about drugs and alcohol because that’s more likely what we’ll pass away from,” Karamol said. “In Lifetime Wellness we talked about it, but we don’t have that class anymore, and now we don’t talk about it anymore.”

Renee said she didn’t see much around campus either.

“They didn’t even do relay for life last year. I think there used to be one because people mentioned it last year, but there wasn’t one. If you didn’t learn about it before, you’re not going to learn about it here because they don’t mention anything about it here,” she said.

The Student Health Center at Ashland University provides an array of services from routine physical exams and care of acute illnesses to drawing lab work and providing allergy injections.

Ashland University’s website lists services of the Student Health Center and commonly treated ailments, along with contact information and hours of operation. On the list of services provided is GYN exams, pap tests, STI testing, and they also provide birth control and GYN care.

The Health Center can provide referrals to specialists, but it is closed for lunch, after 5 p.m., and also is closed on Saturdays and Sundays. It isn’t always readily available. The closest referral would be to the University Hospital because it is less than a mile away from campus.

Dr. Meda said the Care Center and Hospital “have flyers and we have shower hangers, a laminated card you can hang there so you know how to do the exam right.”

According to ACS, breast cancer incidence and death rates generally increase with age, so the longer you wait, the more risk you take.

“It is a reminder, as we get older, that stuff becomes more of a risk to us,” Borcas said.

Dr. Meda stresses that early detection is key.

“We have come a long way, but education is the most important piece and early detection saves lives. If parents are educated about this stuff they’ll have their kids come through the system too. It’s a whole outreach thing. We have programs that talk about awareness, we have patient education hospital programs that are free; not only about breast cancer but many other things too.”