There are many different types of breast cancer, with different stages, various phases of aggressiveness and genetic makeup. Survival varies greatly depending on these factors. Treatment for breast cancer includes surgery, drugs, hormonal therapy, chemotherapy and radiation.
Worldwide, breast cancer comprises 10.4% of all cancer incidences among women, making it the second most frequent type of non skin cancer after lung cancer and the fifth most common cause of cancer decease. In 2004, breast cancer caused 519.000 deaths worldwide. Breast cancer is about 100 times more common in women than in men, but survival rates are the same for both sexes.
Breast cancer facts - An estimated 182.800 new cases of invasive breast cancer are diagnosed every year. Approximately 42.200 deaths will occur in women from breast cancer. One in eight women or 12.6% of all women will get breast cancer in their lifetime. Breast cancer risk grows with age and every woman is at risk. Every 13 minutes a woman deceases of breast cancer. Seventy-seven percent of women with breast cancer are over the age of 50.
More than 1.7 million women who have had breast cancer are still alive in the United States of America. Breast cancer is the main cause of cancer death in women between the ages of 15 and 54, and the second cause of cancer death in women from 55 to 74. Seventy one percent of African American women diagnosed with breast cancer experience a five year survival rate, while eighty six percent of Caucasian women experience five year survival.
The first sign of breast cancer usually shows up on a woman's mammogram before it can be felt or any other symptoms are present. Risks for breast cancer include family history, atypical hyperplasia, also the risk of one who delays the pregnancy until after the age of 30 or never becoming pregnant, early menstruation- before age 12, late menopause (after age 55), current use or use in the last ten years of oral contraceptives and regular alcohol consumption.
Other breast cancer facts include: - Early diagnosis of breast cancer, through monthly breast self-exam and particularly yearly mammography after age 40, offers the best chances of survival. Ninety six percent of women who find and treat breast cancer early will be cancer-free after five years.
More than eighty percent of breast lumps are not cancerous, but benign, such as fibrocystic breast disease. Oral contraceptives may cause a small increase in breast cancer risk; however 10 years after discontinuing use of oral contraceptives the risk of breast cancer is the same as for women who never used contraceptive pills. Estrogen replacement therapy for over 5 years slightly increases the breast cancer risk; however the increased risk seems to disappear 5 to10 years after discontinuing the use of estrogen replacement therapies. A woman is never too young to develop breast cancer! Breast self examination should begin by the age of twenty.