[VIDEO] Pfizer: Why Breast Cancer Awareness Should Not Be Taken Lightly

October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month – 31 days dedicated to raising awareness of the disease and financial support for research to fight breast cancer – and the need to keep a steady awareness of the uncured disease remains vital.

Each year in the United States more than 200,000 women are diagnosed with breast cancer and more than 40,000 die from the disease. Men are not exempt as roughly 200,000 are also diagnosed yearly.

In 2014, the American Cancer Society estimates that there will be 232,670 new cases of invasive breast cancer and the World Health Organization hints at 15 million new cases worldwide.

But while advocacy for awareness of breast cancer seems to have become overrated – turning the month of October into a pink, over-played advertisement – health care professionals continue to remain heavily active in promoting awareness of the disease and attempting to diminish misconceptions.

Pfizer’s Chief Medical Officer Dr. Freda Lewis-Hall, M.D. recently visited the award-winning talk show The Doctors to dispel some of the misconceptions surrounding metastatic breast cancer.

“Today, we’re going to talk about metastatic breast cancer and this is a stage of cancer that not very many people know about,” said Dr. Lewis-Hall.

In a survey conducted by the pharma giant, Pfizer found that 60 percent of people surveyed knew little to nothing about metastatic breast cancer, raising concerns for health care professionals all around as early detection remains to be one of the key successes to proper treatment.

“Most deaths from breast cancer are from complications of recurrent or metastatic disease,” said Dr. Travis Stork, host of The Doctors and a board-certified emergency medicine physician.

“We conducted a recent study and…one of the other common misconceptions that we found in the survey was that people believed that metastatic breast cancer or advanced breast cancer was actually curable, and although early detection at any stage is really important, there’s no cure yet for metastatic breast cancer. That’s why it’s so very important to continue medical research,” said Dr. Lewis-Hall.