There are some things we know about breast cancer. One is that it is the most prevalent cause of death for women at present. Another is that there are more breast cancer survivors now than there were several years ago. But exactly how many incidences of diagnosis are there every year? How many women die and how many survive? These and many others make up breast cancer statistics.

The National Cancer Institute is the primary agency to release breast cancer statistics in the United States. The Cancer Statistics Branch publishes the SEER Cancer Statistics Review annually. This report includes incidence, mortality, prevalence, survival and other risk statistics. Incidence, mortality rates and other risk factors are tabulated with respect to age, state, race, tumor size, stage and others. The report showed that in 2004, the number of women diagnosed was 186,772 while the number of men was only 1,815.

While there may be millions who are diagnosed with this illness, it is not the leading cause of death. More women have died because of heart disease, cerebrovascular disease, lung cancer, chronic lower respiratory disease and Alzheimer’s disease. This shows that there are more breast cancer survivors now than there were years ago.

In order to arrive at these estimates, epidemiologists use various methods. To compare people of different age compositions, “age adjustment” method is used. This is important when cancer rates are compared, more so because breast cancer generally inflicts older women, and some states generally have an older population than others. To estimate new cancer cases, new projection method is used. Instead of using oldest SEER registries where only 10% of the population is covered, estimates are now based on North American Association of Central Cancer Registries which covers about 86% of the population. Aside from this, regional variations with respect to socio-demographic factors, medical settings, screening behaviors and other lifestyle factors are taken into consideration in making incidence predictions.

The American Cancer Society conducts research on breast cancer cases, provides estimates of new cases and analyzes data for long-term trending and study. These statistics are found in their publication, Breast Cancer Facts and Figures. It is estimated that in 2007, 178,480 invasive breast cancer and 62,030 non-invasive breast cancer cases. Also in the same year, about 40,460 women are estimated to die. Out of this number, only 2,830 are women younger than 45 years. Using the latest data available, survival rates for those diagnosed are 89% after 5 years, 81% after 10 years, and 73% after 15 years. There is a significant increase in survival rates compared to the previous years.

In the UK, 44,659 people were diagnosed with breast cancer in 2004. From this number, only 324 were men. Breast cancer is one of the most common types of cancer, third to lung and bowel cancer in causing death. It accounts for 1 out of 3 cancer cases among women. About 80% of the cases involve post-menopausal women. There is an increase in survival rates after 5 years, and breast cancer mortality rates have decreased. This is credited to an increase in awareness, early detection and advances in treatment.

The World Health Organization also conducts their own studies and makes their estimates with the studies as basis. Their studies show that a woman has a 13.4% chance of developing breast cancer throughout her lifetime. This statistic is slightly higher than the US figure, which is 12.28%. As for the death or mortality rate, WHO estimates a 33% mortality rate. This figure is relatively lower than the rates of previous years and the decline is attributed to early detection and advances in treatment. Early detection has also caused the increase in survival rate, 96%, especially if the tumor is at its first stage when detected. This shows the importance of early detection for breast cancer survival.

Breast cancer statistics and trends are basically the same throughout the world. Increased survival rates, fewer deaths and improved survival rates are common in all statistics. This means that more people are becoming aware of breast cancer, more women are treated while cancer is still at its earliest stages, and more survivors are living happy lives.

By: Nathalie Fiset

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When the cancer has advanced fully, it spreads out to other organs. The process of spreading out from the original site is called metastasis, and the stage is referred to as metastatic breast cancer. Sometimes, all cancer cells do not die even after treatment for cancer, and these cells can break out from the original site and travel to other organs through blood vessels and lymphatic vessels, and develop tumors in other organs. This recurrence of cancer in other organs is called metastatic breast cancer, too.

Metastatic breast cancer can either recur, that is, the treatment for breast cancer may have completed, but the cancer cells that escaped from being killed make the cancer recur, or may happen during the course of treatment, when the cancer is so aggressive that it spreads out despite of the treatments, or, in some cases when diagnosis is very late, and the cancer has spread out, metastatic might be the very first diagnosis.

Unfortunate as it may be, breast cancer has the maximum chances of metastasizing. When this happens, bones, and organs like the lungs and brain starts showing abnormal changes, which means they’re starting to develop cancer cell growth. If you get lung cancer or liver cancer or any other cancer after getting breast cancer, it is probably just breast cancer metastasis and not a new cancer. This is good news, since breast cancer has low mortality rates and can be treated. However, if the new cancer if in the breast which did not have cancer previously, it may be a new cancer.

Metastatic breast cancer develops in almost thirty out of hundred women who have had breast cancer, which makes knowledge about it so necessary. When the cancer has not metastasized to organs like the lungs and brain, or when there is a presence of estrogen and progesterone hormones in cancer tissues, the cancer is treatable. Also, if you have already not undergone many treatments for your previous cancer, and the malignant cells show some change after therapies, your treatment can be successful.

Metastatic breast cancer, owing to its nature, requires extensive treatment. Therapies like chemotherapy, hormonal treatment, immune therapy alone with regular mammograms, ultrasounds, CT scans, MRIs, bone scans etc. are necessary. The treatments can be purpose-specific. For treating the whole body, systemic therapies have to be implemented; for treatment of specific organs, local treatments like mastectomy and lumpectomy are done, and for alleviating pain, therapies along with oral aspirin intake are adopted.

A lot of research is going into slowing down and completely stopping further advancement of metastatic breast cancer. Even though this is the worst phase of your cancer, it is important that you know that many women with the metastatic disease have lived happily and normally while taking their treatment. You will have to decide when to end your treatment, for the higher the number of treatments you take, the higher the side-effects. This decision is the hardest to take, but you will know you have tried everything, prolonged your life as much as you could have. Spend the rest of your life being happy, and taking regular medication. Happiness is known for prolonging life, too.

By: Roselyn Capen

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