What to know about your breast cancer risk as Breast Cancer Awareness Month kicks off
A woman holds a pink cancer awareness ribbon. (Getty Images stock photo)
Breast cancer is the second most common cancer among women, with one in eight developing breast cancer in their lifetime.
It is expected that more than 381,000 new cases of invasive, non-invasive and pre-invasive breast cancer will be diagnosed in women this year and about 42,000 women will die, according to the American Cancer Society (ACS).
Knowing your personal risk of developing breast cancer risk could help you and your doctor choose the right screening schedule and prevention methods.
ABC News is teaming up with the ACS for Breast Cancer Awareness Month.
The American Cancer Society encourages women to take the ACS CancerRisk360 free assessment to learn more about the factors they can change to improve their health and lower their cancer risk.
The tool is available to use for anyone ages 18 and older. The tool asks questions about things that can raise an individual’s cancer risk, including:
Individual health historyFamily health historyDaily habits and lifestyleCancer screening history
Based on someone’s answers, the tool gives tips on how to lower one’s cancer risk.
Cancer risk can be controlled or modified with several lifestyle changes including diet, physical activity, tobacco use, HPV vaccination and sun/UV protection, according to ACS. Certain risk factors — such as age and family history — cannot be controlled or modified.
The tool does not cover every type of cancer but does offer steps to lower the risk for cancers such as breast, cervical, colorectal, lung and prostate cancer.
“Understanding your cancer risk should make the next step clearer, not more complicated,” Shane Jacobson, CEO of the American Cancer Society, said in a statement. “CancerRisk360 gives people trusted, personalized guidance they can use to start a conversation with their healthcare provider and take practical steps that may help lower their risk.”
ACS says the tool is not a substitute for speaking with and getting medical advice from an individual’s doctor.
“Always talk to a qualified health care provider who knows your situation and personal health needs,” ACS states on its website. “Do not ignore or delay getting professional medical advice because of anything you read in this assessment or in your recommendations.”
A doctor wipes a staff member’s arm with disinfectant. (Photo by Katharina Kausche/picture alliance via Getty Images)
As the weather turns colder, it also means respiratory virus season is upon the United States.
In its annual outlook report, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said it expects the 2026-27 respiratory virus season to have a similar number of peak hospitalizations from influenza, COVID-19 and RSV compared to last season.
Public health specialists told ABC News the best way for people to protect themselves against these viruses is to get vaccinated.
Flu vaccine
The CDC currently recommends that people aged 6 months and older receive an annual flu vaccine.
The seasonal flu vaccine protects against three viruses predicted to circulate during flu season: Type A (H1N1) virus, Type A(H3N2) virus, and Type B/Victoria virus
“Obviously, we target high-risk groups, so those would be older adults, so over the age of 50, people with chronic medical conditions, individuals who are immunocompromised, individuals that have obesity, or persons who are pregnant or wanting to get pregnant, and healthcare personnel,” Dr. Michael Angarone, director of the Infectious Disease Fellowship Program at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, told ABC News. “But I recommend every patient that I see should get vaccinated for influenza.”
Standard-dose inactivated flu vaccines grown either in eggs or cell culture are available for anybody as young as 6 months old.
High-dose and adjuvanted flu vaccines, both of which are egg-based, are available for those aged 65 and older due to their higher risk of severe illness.
Anyone aged 9 and older can receive a recombinant flu vaccine, which is produced without eggs. For those between ages 2 and 49, who don’t have certain medical conditions and aren’t pregnant, a nasal spray flu vaccine is also available.
Additionally, in August, the Food and Drug Administration approved Moderna’s mRNA seasonal flu vaccine to protect those aged 50 and older.
One dose is recommended for children between 6 months and 8 years old who have received two doses in past seasons and everyone aged 9 and older.
Some children under age 9 may require two doses based on prior vaccine history.
Public health specialists told ABC News they recommend that people receive flu vaccines by the end of October, but that people should get the vaccine even if later in the fall or winter as long as influenza viruses are circulating and unexpired vaccine is available.
Dr. Majd Alsoubani, infectious disease physician at Tufts Medical Center, said that one thing she often hears from patients is that every time they receive the vaccine, they get the flu — which she says is a combination of misinformation and misunderstanding.
“All the injectable influenza vaccines, they don’t have the live virus, it only contains parts of the virus, so it doesn’t cause influenza,” she told ABC News. “We know that the vaccine needs a couple of weeks just to create protection, so if they were exposed to influenza before the vaccine or right after, they actually might get the flu because the vaccine didn’t have time to provide that protection.”
COVID-19 vaccine
People aged 18 and older are recommended to receive the COVID-19 vaccine, as are children ages 6 months to 17 years old at increased risk
Parents of all other children should speak to their pediatrician to discuss getting the vaccine.
The updated 2026-2027 COVID-19 vaccines target the XFG strain, a recombinant Omicron variant, meaning it formed through the combination of two Omicron subvariants.
Moderna’s mRNA vaccine is approved for those 6 months through 64 years old with an underlying condition and for all adults aged 65 and older. Another Moderna mRNA vaccine that is a lower dosage is available for those ages 12 and older
Pfizer’s mRNA vaccine is approved for those 5 years through 64 years old with an underlying condition and for all adults over age 65.
According to the CDC, underlying conditions placing people at risk for higher risk for severe COVID-19 include but are not limited to cancer, asthma, chronic lung disease, diabetes, heart conditions, mental health conditions and pregnancy.
Also available is a vaccine from Novavax, which is a protein-based vaccine, for those aged 12 and older.
Angarone said people can safely get the flu and COVID vaccine during the same visit if they are eligible.
“I recommend to my patients just get it at the same time, or if you don’t want to get both at the same time, get [the COVID vaccine] a week apart from the flu vaccine,” he said. “So, kind of around this time, October timeframe.”
RSV vaccine
“The immunization recommendation kind of follows the people who are at risk of severe disease,” Alsoubani said. “So the RSV vaccine currently is only one dose, so you’re one and done. It’s not an annual vaccine.”
The CDC recommends RSV vaccines for all adults aged 75 and older and adults between ages 50 and 74 at increased risk for severe RSV.
It is also recommended for all pregnant people between 32 and 36 weeks’ gestation.
For infants under 8 months who are in their first RSV season and whose mother did not receive a maternal RSV vaccine, two monoclonal antibody shots are available.
Monoclonal antibodies are proteins manufactured in a lab that mimic the antibodies the body naturally creates when fighting an infection.
A small group of young children between ages 8-19 months at increased risk for severe RSV may also be eligible.
(NEW YORK) — New guidelines from the American Cancer Society are expanding colon cancer screening options beyond colonoscopies and established stool-based tests.
The recommendations still call for colorectal cancer screening in people at average risk starting at age 45 and continuing through age 75 for those with a life expectancy of 10 more years.
And colonoscopy is still considered the gold standard test.
But for the first time, the updated guidelines now include a blood-based screening test done in a doctor’s office. They also add new stool sample kits and a recently FDA-approved at-home test that looks for blood and different molecular markers in stool samples.
Experts note that offering more choices is critical to address gaps in screening for this highly preventable disease, which is most treatable when caught early.
“Individuals who decline or do not complete [testing] are probably a greater number than are actually appreciated,” Dr. William Dahut, chief scientific officer for the American Cancer Society, told ABC News. “And I think a lot of our data on colorectal screening probably overstates the number of people actually up to date on their screening guidelines.”
As the new guidelines point out, the most effective colorectal cancer screening test is the one people are willing to get. More than 20 million eligible Americans remain unscreened, according to the ACS.
While stool-based tests are reasonable options for most people, the new guidelines stress that the blood tests should be considered a last resort for people unable or unwilling to get any other form of testing because they are less likely to catch issues compared to other types of screening.
People who choose colonoscopy should be tested every 10 years. Other screening tests should be done every one, three, or five years, depending on the specific method selected.
These new guidelines come as colon cancer rates rise in younger adults across the US. ASC statistics show that 1 in 5 new colorectal cancer cases now occur in people younger than 55, up from about 1 in 10 in the mid-1990s.
“This is a disease that historically, we saw in older individuals, so people 50 and over or maybe even 60 and over. And now we are starting to see an inching up of incidents in people who are less than age 50,” Dr. Fola May, associate professor of medicine at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, told ABC News.
She said she hoped that having a range of choices would push more people to get tested.
The ACS likely wants to “make sure that patients understand that these tests can be done at home. So you don’t need to take a day off of work. You don’t need an escort, you don’t need to have an invasive procedure,” May said.
The ACS advised people to work with a trusted healthcare provider to decide which test is best for them.
Dahut stressed that the recommendations apply only to people of average risk without symptoms and with no family or personal history of colorectal cancer. Consumers should check with their insurance provider to see which options their plan covers.
It’s important to be aware of the symptoms and take them seriously, he added.
“So if one has symptoms, blood in their stool, symptoms of obstruction, abdominal pain that’s persistent or change in stool patterns, then they need to have a workup for those symptoms and not have a blood-based test like this or a stool-based test,” he said.
Ari Goldstein, MD, MPH, is a board-certified family physician and preventive medicine resident at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
President Donald Trump has nominated Dr. Erica Schwartz, to be the Director of the CDC, April 16, 2026. (Department of Health and Human Services)
(WASHINGTON) — Dr. Erica Schwartz is set to appear before a Senate committee on Wednesday for her confirmation hearing as the next director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Schwartz, a formal deputy surgeon general, was nominated by President Donald Trump in April. Trump made the announcement in a post on Truth Social, describing Schwartz as “incredibly talented.”
Schwartz is the fourth person named or nominated as head of the CDC since last summer. If confirmed by the Senate, Schwartz will replace Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, director of the National Institutes of Health, who took over as acting CDC director in February.
Schwartz earned a medical degree from Brown University and served in the U.S. Navy until 2005.
She served in the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps, as the Coast Guard Chief Medical Officer and as Deputy Surgeon General from 2019 to early 2021, during the first Trump administration.
“I was very pleased to see Dr. Schwartz nominated to be the next director of the CDC,” Dr. Richard Besser, former acting director of the CDC during the Obama administration, told ABC News. “What struck me is how refreshing it felt to see someone nominated for this job who actually has deep experience in public health and has the credentials necessary to lead a complex public health organization.”
Besser expressed concern about whether Schwartz, if confirmed, will have the independence from Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to make public health recommendations, referencing a previous CDC director: Susan Monarez.
Monarez was confirmed as CDC director in July 2025, but she held the post for less than a month. Monarez was fired by Kennedy for reportedly not rubber-stamping the health secretary’s vaccine agenda or firing high-ranking CDC leaders whom he opposed.
The turmoil led to both Kennedy and Monarez appearing in front of Senate committees to address the ousting.
At a Senate hearing, Kennedy denied telling Monarez to accept vaccine recommendations without scientific evidence and claimed she was fired in part because she told him she was untrustworthy.
Besser said he expects that Schwartz will be asked by members of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) about her perspectives on vaccinations, the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the rise of measles in the U.S.
“Those are some of the critical areas I think she’ll be asked about. There are so many other areas that are of concern to those who have relied on the CDC to prevent illness and promote health,” he said.
Sean Kaufman will appear before the Senate HELP Committee for his confirmation hearing on Wednesday. Kaufman was nominated to lead the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response, which was recently absorbed under CDC as part of an HHS reorganization in 2025.
Kaufman has claimed without evidence that the COVID-19 vaccine caused “excessive death and injury … in the United States and globally.” Health officials have said COVID-19 vaccines are safe and effective following clinical trials that involved tens of thousands of people and have since helped save millions of lives.
“What concerns me about Mr. Kaufman is that he has expressed very strong anti-vaccine views, and the ASPR is responsible for the strategic national stockpile,” Besser said. “So, I hope that the committee asks him questions to fully understand the approach that he would take in that role.”
