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The ongoing war on breast cancer brings both good news and bad news to the Mahoning Valley.
The good news is that Mahoning and Trumbull counties have made great strides in attacking the disease and lowering the death toll from it. According to the National Cancer Institute within the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, those two counties rank among the lowest in the state and below the national average in incidence and in fatalities from the disease, and trend lines continue to edge lower.
The bad news is that those trend lines are not diving downward as deeply or as quickly as needed to effectively tame the monstrous malady. Breast cancer remains the most common form of cancer diagnosis in Trumbull County and the third most common in Mahoning County. It continues to claim dozens of lives annually in our region.
That means more steps must be taken to continue the progress achieved over the past two decades. First and foremost among those steps must be continued support of the Panerathon foot race, which over the past 17 years has catapulted to become -- by far -- the Mahoning Valley's largest single fundraising event of the year.
Last August, for example, nearly 10,000 supportive runners, walkers and others raised more than $700,000 in the 2-mile and 10K foot races through Youngstown. Since its inception, Panerathon events have raked in about
$6 million to support operations at the region's state-of-the-art Joanie Abdu Comprehensive Breast Care Center at St. Elizabeth Youngstown Hospital and its mobile mammography units.
That honorable tradition continues Aug. 23 with the running of the 17th Annual Panerathon commencing at 10 a.m. at the Covelli Centre. Here's hoping for the biggest and most successful run in its history.
In addition to good-natured friendly competition on display among racers as they wend their way through city streets and Mill Creek Park, and the celebratory atmosphere among breast-cancer survivors and their supporters on vibrant display at the Covelli Centre starting gate, the Panerathon means business -- serious business.
Its overarching premise is and always has been to help save lives and lower the incidence of breast cancer among women throughout the Valley. Toward that noble goal, the successes have been many:
Since the inception of the JACBBC in 2011, approximately 200,000 breast imaging exams have been performed
The JACBCC has been consistently honored with the prestigious "Guardian of Excellence Award" by Press Ganey for achieving and maintaining patient satisfaction at the 99th percentile
The mobile mammography unit, "Joanie-on-the-Go," services 25 sites monthly and has performed more than 16,000 mammograms.
Those successes have resulted in earlier detection, earlier treatment and lives saved, as the aforementioned improvements in rates of breast cancer incidence and deaths illustrate.
Such progress, however, may well have remained pipe dreams without the generous support of the Panerathon's primary movers and shakers.
Prime among them is Warren-based Covelli Enterprises, a leading national franchisee of Panera Bread eateries and from whom the event owes its name. Covelli's long-standing commitment to civic engagement in general and to the Panerathon cause in particular has attracted many similarly civic-minded sponsors.
As a result, Covelli, the Mercy Health Foundation Mahoning Valley and other Mission Partners underwrite 100% of the significant costs of putting on Sunday's massive event. That means 100% of all registration and sponsorship fees go directly to support the breast-care center.
Great thanks also must be extended to Dr. Rashid Abdu, acclaimed Valley surgeon and husband of the late Joanie Abdu, who lost her battle against breast cancer three decades ago.
Since then, he's been a major force behind the establishment and growth of the center that bears his late wife's name.
Also deserving of kudos, of course, are the tens of thousands of participants in Panerathon who have walked, dashed and hurdled to bring triumph to the event and hope to thousands of Joanie Abdu patients.
That's why we hope the 17th Annual Panerathon shatters the already amazing participation records of past years.
Although team registration ended Friday, online general preregistration continues, and registration also is available at 8 a.m. on race day.
Greater participation clearly translates into a more robust positive impact on our community. Unfortunately, there is much more work and many more miles to run to continue the downward course of breast cancer incidence in our region.
That's why it's crucial that as many selfless supporters as possible take those next critical steps in the race to wallop breast cancer next weekend at Panerathon 2026.