Breast Cancer Facts

• All women are at risk of breast cancer.

• 1 in 8 women will develop breast cancer in their lifetime.

• This rate has more than doubled in the past 30 years.

• Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women.

• Breast cancer is the leading killer of women ages 35 to 54.

• Breast cancer in women under 50 is more aggressive and virulent.

• 70% of breast cancers occur in women without a family history of the disease.

• Despite modern technology, breast cancer mortality has not been significantly reduced in more than 40 years.

The main reasons for this are:

• 90% of breast cancer cases are diagnosed with a palpable tumor size.

• Large numbers of women are without screening tests until a palpable lesion is felt.

• As a stand-alone screening test, mammography misses approximately 20% of all cancerous tumors (false negatives).

• The majority of breast cancers revealed by mammography are not detected early enough.

• 25% of women die within the first 5 years and 40% within 10 years of their diagnosis.

• Over 90% of women diagnosed with Stage 1 cancers are alive 5 years later, unfortunately only 58% of breast cancers are diagnosed at this stage.

• Most cancers take 8-10 years to grow to 1 cm in size, but only 1.5 years more to grow to 3.5 cm.

• No one procedure or method of imaging is solely adequate for breast cancer screening.