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Breast Cancer Statistics

Statistics on breast cancer:

Consider the following statistics related to breast cancer:

• Breast cancer is the most common cancer among women, excluding non-melanoma skin cancer. Currently, approximately 3 million women in the US are living with the disease, including 2 million who have already been diagnosed, and another 1 million who do not yet know they have the disease.
  
  
• American Cancer Society (ACS) estimates for 2001 include 192,200 new cases of invasive breast cancer being diagnosed in the US. In addition, ductal carcinoma in situ will be responsible for 39,900 new cases this year.
  
  
• In 2001, it is estimated that 1,500 men will be diagnosed with breast cancer.
  
  
• Year 2001 estimates include nearly 40,600 deaths occurring from breast cancer in the US alone - this includes approximately 40,200 women and 400 men.
  
  
• Breast cancer is the leading cause of cancer death among women between the ages of 20 and 59 in the US, and the leading cause of cancer death among women worldwide.
  
  
• One out of eight women will develop breast cancer some time during her life - this means one new diagnosis every 2 minutes. Every 13 minutes, a woman will die of breast cancer, according to the National Breast Cancer Coalition (NBCC).
  
  
• All women, regardless of family history, are at risk for breast cancer. In fact, in 90 percent of cases, there is no family history of the disease.
  
  
• Regardless of age, African-American women have the highest breast cancer mortality rates.
  
  
• According to the National Cancer Institute Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results Program, SEER (1995 to 1997), if current rates stay the same, a woman's chance of developing breast cancer is as follows:
  
  
  • by age 30 - 1 out of 2,000 women
  • by age 40 - 1 out of 233 women
  • by age 50 - 1 out of 53 women
  • by age 60 - 1 out of 22 women
  • by age 70 - 1 out of 13 women
  • by age 80 - 1 out of 9 women
  • during her lifetime - 1 out of 8 women

The National Cancer Institute's Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) Program

The SEER Program, a continuing project of the National Cancer Institute (NCI), collects cancer data on a routine basis from designated population-based cancer registries in various areas of the country. Trends in cancer incidence, mortality and patient survival in the United States, as well as many other studies, are derived from this data bank.

Goals of the SEER program are:

• assembling and reporting, on a periodic basis, estimates of cancer incidence and mortality in the United States

• monitoring annual cancer incidence trends to identify unusual changes in specific forms of cancer occurring in population subgroups defined by geographic, demographic, and social characteristics

• providing continuing information on changes over time in the extent of disease at diagnosis, trends in therapy, and associated changes in patient survival

• promoting studies designed to identify factors amenable to cancer control interventions, such as environmental, occupational, socioeconomic, dietary, and health-related exposures; screening practices, early detection, and treatment; and determinants of the length and quality of patient survival.