Educational program: the nurse's role in educating postmastectomy breast cancer patients.

"You have breast cancer" may be some of the most devastating words a woman may hear. Breast cancer is the most common cancer among women and the second leading cause of cancer death in women behind lung cancer in the United States (). According to ACS, more than 180,000 U.S. women will be diagnosed with breast cancer in 2008 and more than 40,000 will die from this disease. Although the incidence of breast cancer has increased, death rates are on the decline due to early detection and improved treatments ().