Breast Cancer Statistics Back Early Treatment

Here are some facts concerning breast cancer, provided by the American Cancer Society:

An estimated 150,900 cases of breast cancer were diagnosed in 1990. The disease killed about 44,000 women last year. It is second only to malignant lung disease as a cause of cancer deaths in women.

One of every nine women in the United States will get breast cancer. About 25% of those who have breast cancer today will die of it. No one knows why the disease strikes, or how to prevent it.

Incidence rates, rising about 1% each year, jumped to 104.9 per 100,000 women in 1986 from 84.7 per 100,000 in 1980. Some of that apparent increase is attributed to better screening programs. Mortality rates have remained fairly stable over the last 50 years.

Of the women who get breast cancer, 55% have none of the known risk factors, such as a family history of the disease, being childless, bearing a first child after age 30, or being 50 or older.

Breast cancer is more common among white women, but black women are more likely to die of it because they tend to have lower incomes. They seek treatment later and have less access to it, the cancer society said. Mammography screening is more available to affluent and middle-class women, who tend to find their breast cancer in earlier stages and thus have better chances of survival.

The federal government has budgeted more than $1.4 billion for AIDS research this fiscal year, about 15 times the amount allocated to breast cancer research. The National Cancer Institute’s $1.7-billion budget earmarks $89 million to study ways to combat breast cancer.