As the first full month of fall begins, awesome colors abound. Vibrant shades of red, orange, green and yellow will soon mix amid the leaf-filled landscape to create a mesmerizing melange of splendor.

Over the past three decades, however, pink has upstaged the traditional autumnal color palette. That's because pink affixed to ribbons, clothing, banners, buildings and more symbolizes the increasingly robust campaign each October to fight breast cancer in our community and in our nation.

The Mahoning Valley can take pride in the overwhelming and compassionate commitment it makes in October -- and throughout the year -- to raise awareness, to expand treatment opportunities and to increase the ranks of breast-cancer survivors. As Breast Cancer Awareness Month begins this week, pink will become the color of choice to increase public visibility of the disease and to draw attention to this community's aggressive and energetic commitment to rein it in.

And rein it in we have. According to the Ohio Department of Health's 2024 Cancer Profiles for each county in the state, the Mahoning Valley has witnessed a surprisingly strong decline in cancer case and deaths in recent years.

Mahoning County has seen its rate of new cases decline from about 500 per 100,000 population in 2015 to around 400 per 100,000 today. Cancer deaths have declined 17% annually over the same time frame, above the state average of a 14% decline. In Trumbull County, the cancer mortality rate has fallen a whopping 20%.

One reason behind those impressive figures may well be found on Youngstown's North Side. There, the Joanie Abdu Comprehensive Breast Care Center stands as the crown jewel of the commitment to wage full-scale war on breast cancer. The 13-year-old state-of-the-art treatment facility stands as a vital cog of St. Elizabeth Youngstown Hospital.

In its relatively short life span, the $8 million center has saved countless lives and has garnered praise from near and far. Its mission has attracted phenomenal community support, as evidenced by the 10,000 runners and walkers who turned out five weeks ago for the 2024 Panerathon, the largest fundraising event in the Mahoning Valley that thus far has raised more than $5 million for the center.

But this pink-ribbon month of awareness extends far beyond support for Joanie Abdu. Many groups in the community have embraced the nationwide campaign. Businesses, nonprofit charities and college organizations have united behind the pink banner.

To be sure, Breast Cancer Awareness Month has grown in volume and in passion since first observed 32 years ago when Self magazine editor Alexandra Penney first used a pink ribbon to draw attention to the cause. But just as in 1992, the mission of the monthlong movement remains clear: The fight to cure the disease must be won.

Breast cancer is a cancer in which cells in the breast tissue divide and grow without normal control. Except for skin cancers, breast cancer is the most common cancer among women. About 1 in 8 women can expect to be diagnosed with breast cancer in their lifetime. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, the disease kills about 200,000 American women annually.

In the Mahoning Valley, Ohio and most of the nation, breast cancer ranks second only to lung cancer in scope. In addition, many old wives' tales surround the disease. That's why a continued strong outpouring of local activism for education, outreach and research remains critical.

Opportunities abound this month to continue the momentum. For our part, this newspaper colored its print editions in pink Tuesday. Throughout the month, we will feature story after amazing story on our Health pages of resilient breast cancer survivors in our region.

To those few out there who grumble that coloring October in pink represents one cheesy, tacky and overdone strategy to fight a serious disease, we say baloney.

The strides made over the past three decades prove otherwise. What's more, if one pink-lighted building, one pink poster or one pink ribbon reminds one high-risk woman of the need to schedule a mammogram, the value of pink-ribbon month will have more than proved its worth.