Yahoo! Search Trends: Breast Cancer Awareness

What does “Think Pink” mean to you? For many Americans, it means a chance to understand, advocate and educate about breast cancer. National Breast Cancer Awareness Month (October) has increased recognition for breast cancer, and although breast cancer diagnosis rates have jumped 30% since 1990, thanks to improved treatment and early detection, fatalities have declined.

“How much has National Breast Cancer Awareness Month increased awareness?”

On Yahoo!, searches for “breast cancer” double in October compared to other months of the year.  Searches for “breast cancer awareness” this month on Yahoo! are up 552%.

Vigilance hasn’t wavered – the number of breast cancer searches in 2010 on Yahoo! were 28% higher than 2009, and in the past 30 days, searches include:

• Searches for “breast cancer ribbon” on Yahoo! are up 418%.
• Yahoo! searches for “breast cancer” are up 31%, thus far.
• Breast cancer searches happen year round, but as October approaches, searches about breast cancer events, products and National Breast Cancer Awareness month itself comprise 12% of all breast-cancer related searches.
• “Breast cancer symptoms” and “signs of breast cancer” are among the leading searches for breast cancer. People also look into cancer types, including “metastic breast cancer,” “stage 4 breast cancer,” “inflammatory breast cancer,” “lobular breast cancer,” “HER2 breast cancer.”

Does awareness translate into prevention?

In 2009, “mammogram” searches on Yahoo! spiked 49% in October.  In November 2009, the month following National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, those searches spiked 344%.

Did You Know? Women don’t have to carry the burden of understanding this disease alone: a third of “breast cancer” searches come from men.

• Men comprised 33% of “breast cancer” searches in October 2010 — up 3% from 2009, and more than 25% of an increase over October 2008. On a separate note, people also look for “symptoms of breast cancer in men.”

Since cancer doesn’t discriminate or take into consideration everyday lives outside of doctor’s offices, men, women and children turn to the Internet with their breast cancer related questions.

According to Yahoo!, some of the top searched breast cancer relates questions include:

• What are the early signs of breast cancer?
• What is breast cancer?
• What are the symptoms of breast cancer?
• Is there a breast cancer vaccine?
• When is breast cancer awareness month?
• What are the survival rates for breast cancer?
• What causes breast cancer?
• What is the most aggressive form of breast cancer?
• How can breast cancer be prevented?
• Can you get breast cancer in your 20s?

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