A new report on breast cancer from the American Cancer Society offers some bleak statistics on the prevalence of the disease, saying it’s on the rise — particularly in younger women.
“Breast cancer incidence increased during the most recent decade of data (2012-2021) by 1% annually overall, with a steeper increase among women younger than 50 years (1.4% per year) than in those 50 or older (0.7% per year),” the annual report says.
And 1 in 8 women in the United States will be diagnosed with invasive breast cancer in their lifetime, the report says.
The report also notes that the breast cancer death rate has dropped by 44% since 1989 because of advances in treatment and early detection — but breast cancer is still the leading cancer diagnosis among women in the US, and the second leading cause of cancer death after lung cancer.
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Cases of breast cancer also rose for Asian American and Pacific Islander women, who historically have had lower incidences of the disease.
And alarmingly, while Black women were found to have a 5% lower rate of breast cancer than White women, they were 38% more likely to die — largely due to late diagnosis and access to treatment.
In April, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force announced new guidelines that women should start getting regular mammograms at age 40 — a decade earlierthan previous recommendations — to screen for breast cancer.
“If all women followed our new recommendation, we could reduce mortality from breast cancer in the U.S. by about 20%,” Dr. Carol Mangione, an internal medicine specialist at UCLA who co-authored the new recommendation, told NPR at the time of the announcement. “That’s a big reduction in mortality from breast cancer.”
Stock image of a mammogram machine.
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According to the report from the American Cancer Society, an estimated 42,250 women will die from breast cancer this year.
As the report notes, “Most women who develop breast cancer have no known risk factors. Approximately 30% of cases can be attributed to potentially modifiable risk factors, such as excess body weight (postmenopausal breast cancer), physical inactivity, and alcohol consumption.”
However, having an inherited BRCA genetic mutation can sharply increase your risk of developing breast cancer; As the U.S. Centers for Disease Control notes, “about 50 out of 100 women with a BRCA gene mutation will get breast cancer by the time they turn 70 years old, compared to only 7 out of 100 women in the general United States population.”
Breast cancer that is caught early — meaning, before it has spread — has up to a 99% five-year survival rate, the American Cancer Society says.
“For many women, mammograms are the best way to find breast cancer early, when it is easier to treat. Mammograms can find cancer before it is big enough to feel or cause symptoms,” says the CDC, whose National Breast and Cervical Cancer Early Detection Program (NBCCEDP) provides screenings and other services to women who are uninsured or fall below the federal poverty limit.
