Every October, pink ribbons appear across the country for Breast Cancer Awareness Month. For me, this awareness is deeply personal; my grandmother lost her life to breast cancer 16 years ago. But this year, those ribbons come with real reason for hope.

Breast cancer has been documented for thousands of years. For most of that history, a diagnosis meant highly invasive surgery, harsh one-size-fits-all treatments, or often no effective options at all. Today, we are in the midst of a scientific renaissance in how we detect and treat this disease.