Breast Cancer Statistics

Breast cancer a common type of cancer is the second leading cause of cancer deaths in women today after lung cancer. Breast cancer is the most common cancer among women above the age of 40 excluding nonmelanoma skin cancers. The breast cancer statistics as given by the World Health Organization has estimated that every year nearly 1.2 million people will be affected with breast cancer worldwide and over 5 million will die from the disease. According to the American Cancer Society in 2007 nearly 180,510 new cases of invasive breast cancer will be diagnosed. However, according to the society there has been a steady decrease in the breast cancer death rates since 1990, because of the earlier detection and better treatments. The society has estimated that about 40,910 breast cancer deaths are expected in 2007.

According to the American Cancer Society, the chances of breast cancer death among women are about 1 in 33 that is 3%. During the 1980s the number of new breast cancer patients per 100,000 women had increased by approximately 4% but in 1990s the incidence rate has leveled off to 100.6 cases per 100,000 women. There have been a sharp declined in death rates from breast cancer between 1992 and 1996, with the largest decreases among younger women. Medical experts have attributed the decline in the death due to breast cancer to earlier detection and more effective treatments as a result of extensive methods of treatments and research.

Breast cancer statistics show that breast cancer is less common at a young age i.e., in their thirties. But breast cancer takes a very aggressive turn in case of younger women than older women, which may explain why rates of survival are much lower among younger women than older women.

Statistics on breast cancer shows that all women are at risk for developing breast cancer. However the risk of developing breast cancer is greater in older women above the age of 50. Approximately 77% of breast cancer cases occur in women over 50 years of age.

According to the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) Program of the National Cancer Institute White, Hawaiian, and African-American women in United States have the highest risk of breast cancer approximately four times higher than the lowest group while American Indian, Korean, and Vietnamese women have the lowest risk of invasive breast cancer. African-American women in the age groups, 30-54 and 55-69 years have the highest death rate from breast cancer, followed by Hawaiian women.

In 2005 breast cancer statistics showed that 502,000 deaths were caused by breast cancer that is almost 7% of all cancer deaths. It is expected that in 2007 in United States alone that almost 40,910 deaths would be caused by breast cancer which is almost 2% of all deaths. In United States breast cancer deaths is the second most common cause of cancer deaths.

The number of breast cancer cases has considerably increased since 1970s, the reason being the modern lifestyles of the people in this part of the world. According to a study conducted by the Society for Women’s Health Research breast cancer is most feared disease among the women after heart diseases. Recently statistics shows that there is a incidence rate of breast cancer among males too as breast in men and women are composed of similar tissues though the rate is still very less in comparison to that of the women.

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