Breast Cancer Awareness Month: Practical Actions for Pharmacists This October

October’s Breast Cancer Awareness Month is more than a sea of pink. It's also a time for the medical community to work together to eliminate unmet needs in screening, tackle inequalities, and promote the use of evidence-based treatments.

Pharmacists in the community and the health system play a key role in taking the guidelines to the care setting; thus, they can help lift the limits on the screening and aid patients navigating complex treatment scenario. The US Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) has altered its advice and currently recommends mammography screening every two years starting at the age of 40 until the age of 74, thus lowering the start age from 50 and potentially allowing breast cancers to be identified in younger women earlier.¹

Breast cancer is still the most frequently diagnosed cancer in females in the US and is the second leading cause of cancer death. It is also a leading cause of death from cancer in Hispanic and non-Hispanic Black women, which indicates inequalities in early detection and accessibility of top care.²

Pharmacists may leverage Breast Cancer Awareness Month to break the silence around breast health, challenge the common fear of pain and radiation from mammography, and provide an easy step-by-step guide on when and how to get a screening.^1,2

Stocking and distributing simple, multilingual one-pagers that summarize the USPSTF’s age/interval recommendations and what to expect during a mammogram can reduce anxiety and increase follow-through.

The American Cancer Society (ACS) estimates that approximately 1 in 8 women (13.1%) will be diagnosed with invasive breast cancer in their lifetime, with tens of thousands of new invasive cases expected each year.³ For many patients, the first touchpoint for questions about risk, screening intervals, dense breasts, and out-of-pocket costs is the local pharmacy. With brief risk conversations—“Do you have a parent, sibling, or child with breast or ovarian cancer?”; “Have you ever had prior chest radiation?”—pharmacists can flag patients who may qualify as higher risk and should discuss annual MRI plus mammography with their clinicians based on National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) guidance.⁴

Pharmacists can make a lasting impact during Breast Cancer Awareness Month significantly by providing guidance to patients during screening, treatment, and survivorship care. They can not only assist patients within the age bracket of 40 to 74 in organizing a mammogram on a biennial basis but also guide those patients with higher risk to an earlier or more intensive screening along with explaining dense breast notifications. As a result, patients get assurance that mammography saves lives and supplemental imaging is needed in few cases.^1,4

During treatment, pharmacists can help patients on endocrine therapies stay the course by managing side effects. They can also monitor patients on CDK4/6 inhibitors and give advice on safety issues in the use of HER2-targeted or antibody–drug conjugate regimens. Moreover, a pharmacovigilance point such as a flu or COVID-19 vaccination may permit a pharmacist to verify the status of the screening or counsel survivors on common issues like bone health, lymphedema, and mental well-being. Such multisectoral measures transform the month of awareness into sustained patient care year-round.⁴

Awareness campaigns are most potent when they are practical and culturally relevant. The World Health Organization's message for Breast Cancer Awareness Month focuses on the change of behavior leading to early detection and fair access to care. Pharmacists can accomplish these objectives by providing more convenient hours for consultation, collaborating with local organizations for free screening days, and making sure that educational materials are representative of the communities served.⁵

Skills training for disease education along with patient navigation: QR codes linking to local scheduling portals, checklists that briefly explain what to bring to a mammogram, and reminder cards for lab draws or toxicity checks. Small operational adjustments—putting screening prompts on bag stuffers, training technicians to identify eligible patients, and using “screening referrals given” as a quality metric—are the tools that convert the awareness into impact that can be measured.

REFERENCES

1. U.S. Preventive Services Task Force. Breast cancer: Screening. U.S. Preventive Services Task Force. Published April 30, 2024. https://www.uspreventiveservicestaskforce.org/uspstf/recommendation/breast-cancer-screening

2. CDC. Breast Cancer Statistics. Breast Cancer. Published June 10, 2025. https://www.cdc.gov/breast-cancer/statistics/index.html

3. ACS. Breast Cancer Facts & Figures. Accessed October 1, 2025. chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://www.cancer.org/content/dam/cancer-org/research/cancer-facts-and-statistics/breast-cancer-facts-and-figures/2024/breast-cancer-facts-and-figures-2024.pdf

4. NCCN. Breast Cancer Screening and Diagnosis. Accessed October 1, 2025. chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://www.nccn.org/patients/guidelines/content/PDF/breastcancerscreening-patient.pdf

5. Breast Cancer Awareness Month 2025. Who.int. Published 2025. https://www.who.int/news-room/events/detail/2025/10/01/default-calendar/breast-cancer-awareness-month-2025