Breast Cancer
Information and Facts

BREAST CANCER: AN AMERICAN EPIDEMIC

• A woman dies of breast cancer every 11 minutes.

• Breast cancer is an epidemic. It is the most commonly diagnosed cancer in America women today.

• There are 1.8 million women in this country who have been diagnosed with breast cancer and 1 million more who do not yet know they have the disease.

• This year 182,000 women and 1,000 men will discover that they have breast cancer, and 46,000 will die from the disease.

• Breast cancer is the leading cause of death of women ages 35-54

• The death rate from breast cancer has not been reduced significantly in more than 50 years. One out of four women with breast cancer dies within the first 5 years; 35% die within 10 years of diagnosis.

• The incidence of breast cancer among American women is rising each year. For women ages 30 to 34, the incidence rate tripled between 1973 and 1987; the rate quadrupled for women ages 35 to 39 during the same period.

• The risk of breast cancer has more than doubled in the past 30 years. In 1960, 1 woman in 20 could expect to be diagnosed with breast cancer in her lifetime; today, 1 in 8 faces that threat

• We do not know what causes breast cancer, how to cure it or what to do to prevent it. For two decades, underfunded research has focused on detection and treatment, rather than cause and prevention; and current methods of detection, physical examination and mammography, are imperfect at best.

• Breast cancer costs this country more than six billion each year in medical expenses and lost productivity.

• All women in America are at risk for breast cancer.