Breast Cancer

A woman's chance of breast cancer increases with age, by age 30 she has a 1 out of 2,212 chance of getting breast cancer, by age 40 it is 1out of 235, age 50 is 1 out of 54, age 60 is 1 out of 23, age 70 is 1 out of 14, and by age 80 your chances of getting breast cancer are 1 out of 10.
             All women are at risk for developing breast cancer. The older a woman is, the greater her chances of developing breast cancer. Approximately 77% of breast cancer cases occur in women over 50 years of age. According to the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) Program of the National Cancer Institute: White, Hawaiian, and African-American women have the highest incidence of invasive breast cancer in the United States (approximately four times higher than the lowest group). Korean, American Indian, and Vietnamese women have the lowest incidence of invasive breast cancer in the United States. African-American have the highest death rate from breast cancer and are more likely to be diagnosed with a later stage of breast cancer than White women. In the age groups, 30-54 and 55-69 years, African-American women have the highest death rate from breast cancer, followed by Hawaiian women, and white non-Hispanic women. However, in the 70-year old age group, the death rate from breast cancer for white women is higher than for African -American. Breast cancer is the most common cancer among women other than skin cancer, is the second-leading cause of cancer death in women after lung cancer, and is the leading cause of cancer death among women ages 35 to 54. In 2001, 192,200 women will be diagnosed with breast cancer and approximately 40,600 will die. Although these numbers may sound frightening, research reveals that the mortality rate could decrease by 30% if all women age 50 and older who need a mammogram had one. Only 5-10% of breast cancers occur in women with a clearly defined genetic predisposition for the disease.