LOS ANGELES, Oct. 6, 2009 – In observance of the 25th annual Breast Cancer Awareness Month celebration in October, the Breast Preservation Foundation (BPF) has launched its annual “Million Friends” campaign to encourage one million Facebook and MySpace friends and Twitter followers to join the Foundation in raising awareness for skin-sparing mastectomy and breast cancer.
Despite the availability of advanced surgical techniques like skin-sparing mastectomy, breast cancer patients are still kept in the dark, continuing to undergo traditional mastectomies, resulting in needlessly disfiguring scars.
Breast Cancer Awareness Month provides an opportunity to share our message globally so that breast cancer patients may be informed of all their surgical options,” said Joel Aronowitz, M.D., founder of the Breast Preservation Foundation and Clinical Chief of the Plastic Surgery Division at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles.
The “Million Friends” campaign will directly connect people and engage them in conversation through these popular social media channels, providing information to women who are or may face a breast cancer diagnosis and enabling them to consider all their surgical options for a better cosmetic outcome,” he added.
To become one of the million friends, Facebook fans may join the cause by searching keyword Breast Preservation Foundation or by accessing the link at www.breastpreservation.org. MySpace users can add Breast Preservation Foundation at http://www.myspace.com/breastpreservation. Twitter users can see the latest tweets and follow @DrAronowitz.
About Skin-Sparing Mastectomy
A skin-sparing mastectomy, also known as breast-conserving surgery, is a way to treat cancer and save the breast skin. In so doing it causes much less scarring than a traditional mastectomy. The skin-sparing procedure removes cancerous breast tissue through a small incision usually around the areola area of the nipple. The surgeon leaves most of the breast skin, creating a natural skin envelope, or pocket, that is filled with a breast implant or with the patient’s own tissue from another part of her body. The skin-sparing technique significantly improves the cosmetic outcome and gives the best option for reconstruction.
About Breast Preservation Foundation
The Breast Preservation Foundation’s (BPF) mission is to educate women about skin-sparing mastectomies and its advantages for an overall better cosmetic result. The BPF’s goal is to inform and empower women to ask more questions before having a potentially disfiguring biopsy, lumpectomy and traditional mastectomy. The BPF advocates that women insist their breast surgeon recognize the importance of preserving the breast which can improve their quality of life after receiving a breast cancer diagnosis.
For more information about skin-sparing mastectomies, breast cancer survival and the Breast Preservation Foundation, please visit www.BreastPreservation.org.
