Beyond the Pink Ribbon: What Breast Cancer Awareness Still Needs to Get Right

Introduction

Every October, pink ribbons, fundraising walks and awareness campaigns bring breast cancer into the public conversation. But for people living with the disease, the experience does not end when the month does. Treatment can leave lasting complications, medical expenses can continue to mount, and survivors may face a new reality long after their final appointment.

For Dr. Sheri Prentiss, a physician diagnosed with breast cancer in 2008, that gap between public awareness and patients' everyday lives is central to her advocacy.

"I knew how to interpret a diagnosis," Prentiss said. "I didn't know how to explain to my daughters that their mother had cancer while they were already preparing to lose their grandmother."

Her medical training had prepared her to understand disease and treatment. Becoming a patient showed her how much of the cancer experience extends beyond clinical decisions.

"For me, Breast Cancer Awareness Month isn't simply about celebrating survival," she said. "It's about accepting responsibility for what survival has taught us."

For Prentiss, the question extends beyond October: What happens after the immediate crisis has passed, and are survivors receiving the support they need?

“Medicine taught me how to recognize disease. Becoming a patient taught me how important it is to recognize the person living with it.”

Awareness Is Only the Beginning

Prentiss sees value in dedicating a month to breast cancer. Public campaigns can encourage conversations, raise funds and prompt people to seek medical advice. But visibility alone does not guarantee progress.

"Awareness should never be mistaken for accomplishment," she said.

For Prentiss, the measure of a campaign is what changes because of it. Does someone seek screening or have a concerning change evaluated? Do health systems address gaps in care? Can patients obtain the treatment and support their doctors recommend?

"Those are the outcomes that give awareness its purpose," Prentiss said.

She describes awareness, education and action as connected steps, with each building on the last.

"Awareness is the invitation," she said. "Education is the bridge. Action is what ultimately changes lives."

The need for continued support becomes especially clear after October, when public attention shifts elsewhere but patients may still be receiving chemotherapy, recovering from surgery or managing complications from treatment.

"I wish people understood that breast cancer is not a thirty-one-day experience," Prentiss said.

For patients and survivors, the effects of the disease do not follow a calendar.

The Realities of Life After Treatment

There is no single breast cancer experience. The disease has different biological subtypes and stages, and patients can respond differently to treatment. Even after someone is declared cancer-free, the effects may remain. Fatigue, neuropathy, cognitive changes, emotional distress, changes in body image and lymphedema can affect daily life.

Prentiss said lymphedema, a condition that can cause swelling and other complications, permanently changed her ability to practice clinical medicine after cancer treatment. The experience helped shape her work in survivorship advocacy.

For Prentiss, lymphedema is not simply a complication from the past. It is a chronic condition requiring ongoing management—a daily reminder that the effects of cancer treatment can extend far beyond the treatment itself.

"And perhaps most importantly, I wish people understood that survival and recovery are not synonymous," she said.

Life does not necessarily return to normal after treatment. Some survivors adjust to lasting physical changes, while others face financial strain, changes in relationships or uncertainty about whether their cancer will return.

There can also be pressure to remain positive, even when the experience has brought grief and loss.

"Gratitude and grief can coexist,” Prentiss said. “You can be thankful to be alive and still mourn what cancer took from you.”

Through the LIVE Today Foundation, which she founded, Prentiss has encountered patients who have completed cancer treatment but cannot afford the compression garments needed to manage lymphedema.

"These aren't cosmetic accessories,” she said. “They're medically necessary components of managing a chronic condition.”

For these patients, completing treatment does not end their medical expenses or eliminate the need for continued care.

"We cannot celebrate a woman's survival in October and ignore her struggle to obtain essential care in November," Prentiss said.

She wants survivorship care to include ongoing education, monitoring, rehabilitation when needed, emotional support and access to resources. Patients should not have to navigate the next stage of their lives alone simply because active treatment has ended.

When Care Exists but Remains Out of Reach

Access to care is another issue Prentiss wants awareness campaigns to address. Medical advances can offer patients new options, but those advances mean little if people cannot benefit from them.

"We may have an effective treatment, an evidence-based screening tool, or a medically necessary therapy," she said. "But if a patient cannot access it, afford it, understand it, or navigate the system required to obtain it, its existence alone doesn't solve her problem."

Transportation, insurance limitations, out-of-pocket expenses, health literacy and geographic disparities can all stand between patients and the care they need. Prentiss also points to the unequal burden of breast cancer mortality among certain populations, including Black women.

Sharing information is only one part of addressing these disparities. Patients also need practical ways to obtain appropriate care.

That includes better attention to rehabilitation and survivorship services, particularly the early recognition and management of lymphedema.

"Lymphedema screening, for example, should not be treated as an afterthought," she said. "Early recognition, appropriate evaluation, and timely intervention can make a meaningful difference in a patient's long-term quality of life."

Support must also account for the emotional and spiritual dimensions of living with cancer without assuming that every patient shares the same beliefs, coping mechanisms or support system.

"A truly patient-centered healthcare system doesn't simply ask, 'Did we treat the cancer?'" Prentiss said. "It also asks, 'What does this person need to live well with everything that comes next?'"

For Prentiss, that question captures what comprehensive cancer care should address: not just treatment of the disease, but the support patients need afterward.

Early Detection Without Blame

Prentiss also wants awareness campaigns to emphasize early detection without making patients feel responsible for a diagnosis that occurs at a later stage.

Early detection can expand treatment options and improve outcomes, she said. But screening tests are not perfect, and breast cancer can develop and progress differently depending on its subtype and other factors.

"Early detection is not a guarantee, and a later-stage diagnosis is not necessarily evidence that someone failed to take care of herself,” she said.

She encourages people to become familiar with what is normal for their breasts, communicate changes promptly and discuss screening recommendations and individual risk factors with their health care professionals. A recent normal mammogram should not be a reason to dismiss a new symptom.

"Most importantly, if you believe something is wrong, don't be afraid to ask questions or seek further evaluation," she said.

Prentiss said health care professionals must listen, explain next steps and follow through, creating an environment where patients feel safe raising concerns.

Measuring What Changes

Prentiss wants Breast Cancer Awareness Month to be judged by more than the attention it attracts. She wants campaigns to demonstrate how they improve the lives of the people they aim to help.

"My hope is that Breast Cancer Awareness Month evolves from a predominantly awareness-centered observance into a more measurable movement for access, equity, survivorship, and meaningful outcomes," she said.

That means looking at whether more people receive appropriate screening, whether patients with symptoms can access timely evaluation, and whether survivors can obtain follow-up care, rehabilitation and necessary medical supplies.

Prentiss also wants awareness efforts to reflect the range of experiences people have with breast cancer. That includes younger and older patients, men diagnosed with the disease, people living with metastatic cancer, survivors managing long-term complications and families who have lost loved ones.

"Not every breast cancer story ends with a celebratory bell-ringing ceremony," she said. "Those stories deserve visibility too."

Recognizing those experiences does not diminish the importance of celebrating survival. It acknowledges that gratitude, grief, hope and uncertainty can coexist, and that patients deserve support regardless of how their experiences appear to others.

For Prentiss, the pink ribbon should represent a commitment that lasts beyond October. Awareness can start a conversation, but patients need care and support long after public attention moves elsewhere.

"I want an October when the pink ribbon represents more than awareness of a disease," she said. "I want it to represent a collective commitment to the dignity, well-being, and future of every person affected by it."

For Prentiss, the message extends beyond Breast Cancer Awareness Month: the real test is whether awareness helps people obtain the care, resources, and understanding they need. The real test is whether the attention they generate helps people obtain the care, resources and understanding they need.

"Because awareness may begin with a ribbon,” she said. “But compassion, access, and meaningful support must continue long after October ends.”

For Prentiss, the message is ultimately both professional and deeply personal. “I don't simply want us to think pink. I want us to think deeper, care longer, advocate louder, and remember the people behind every diagnosis.”

Where to Find Support

If you or someone you love is navigating breast cancer, you don't have to figure it out alone. These organizations offer information, guidance and, in some cases, direct financial help.

LIVE Today Foundation

Founded by Dr. Sheri Prentiss, LIVE Today Foundation provides free, medically necessary, ready-to-wear compression garments to eligible cancer patients and survivors living with lymphedema who are experiencing financial hardship. The foundation also promotes education, awareness, and early recognition of cancer-related lymphedema.

live-today.org