U.S. Breast Cancer Deaths Drop

But A Race Gap Still Persists in America's Breast Cancer Death Rate, ACS Says

(WebMD)  The American Cancer Society (ACS) today reported that U.S. breast cancer deaths continue to drop, but that decline still hasn't reached all ethnic groups.

That news appears in the ACS' biannual report on breast cancer in the U.S.

According to the report, breast cancer deaths declined by 2.2% annually from 1990 to 2004, partly due to earlier detection and advances in treatment.

But there are racial gaps in those figures, the report also shows.

Breast Cancer Race Gap

The ACS reports that breast cancer deaths dropped 2.4% per year from 1990 to 2004 in white and Hispanic women, compared with 1.6% annually in African-American women.

Women's breast cancer death rates didn't change during that time among
Asian-American/Pacific Islanders, American Indians, and Alaska natives.

The precise reasons for those racial patterns aren't clear. Genetics may play a role, but other factors including income and access to medical care are also important.

"A woman today has a lower chance of dying from breast cancer than she's
had in decades," says Harmon Eyre, MD, chief medical officer for the ACS, in a news release.

"Unfortunately, not all women are benefiting at the same level," says Eyre, noting that by 2004, breast cancer death rates were 36% higher in African-American women than in white women.

The ACS estimates that about 40,460 U.S. women will die of breast cancer in
2007 - and that about 2.4 million women living in the U.S. have a history of breast cancer.

But breast cancer isn't U.S. women's leading cancer killer - lung cancer is
- and heart disease kills more U.S. women than all cancers combined.

Latest Breast Cancer Statistics

In the new report, the ACS predicts that an estimated 178,480 new cases of
invasive breast cancer will be diagnosed this year among U.S. women.

Invasive cancer has spread from its starting point into surrounding breast
tissue. Most breast cancers are invasive.

The ACS also estimates that 62,030 new cases of in situ breast cancer
(cancer that hasn't spread beyond its starting point to other breast tissue)
will be diagnosed in 2007.

Breast cancer is far more common among women than men. The ACS predicts that
in 2007, about 2,030 cases of breast cancer will be diagnosed in men,
accounting for about 1% of all breast cancers.

The ACS estimates that 450 men will die of breast cancer in the U.S. this
year.

Breast Cancer Rarer?

Breast cancer is U.S. women's most common cancer (except for skin cancers),
but it may be becoming rarer than in the past.

Don't race past that word "may." Undetected breast cancers due to missed mammograms may be contributing to the trend.

The ACS reports a 3.5% drop per year in breast cancer cases from 2001 to
2004.

That decline follows a sharp rise in breast cancer cases from 1980 to 1987
that slowed until 2001 and then headed down.

Why the turnaround? The ACS notes two possible reasons.

Reason No. 1: Many women halted hormone replacement therapy (HRT) starting
in 2002, after the Women's Health Initiative linked HRT to breast cancer risk. Researchers continue to debate that risk.

Reason No. 2: Mammography rates are down. Some women may have breast cancer and not know it. That would make breast cancer rates look lower than they really are.

Mammography isn't a perfect test, but it's the best way to screen women for
breast cancer.

Breast Cancer Perspective

A woman living in the U.S. has a 12.3% (1 in 8) lifetime risk of developing
breast cancer, states the ACS report.

But remember, that's a general number about a woman's odds of developing
breast cancer at some point in her life - not this year, or even this
decade.

Breast cancer becomes more common with age, but it can also strike before
menopause, so the ACS encourage women to learn what's normal for their breasts and to get lumps checked by a doctor.

Most lumps aren't breast cancer. But don't assume that a lump is no big deal. Check with your doctor to find out - and remember, if it is breast cancer, the sooner it's detected, the better your chances may be of survival.

[oigen]

The Cochrane Collaboration, just one of many studies showing that screening may be worse than useless........

Authors%u2019 conclusions
Screening likely reduces breast cancer mortality. Based on all trials, the reduction is 20%, but as the effect is lower in the highest quality
trials, a more reasonable estimate is a 15% relative risk reduction. Based on the risk level of women in these trials, the absolute risk
reduction was 0.05%. Screening also leads to over diagnosis and over treatment, with an estimated 30% increase, or an absolute risk
increase of 0.5%. This means that for every 2000 women invited for screening throughout 10 years, one will have her life prolonged.
In addition, 10 healthy women, who would not have been diagnosed if there had not been screening, will be diagnosed as breast cancer
patients and will be treated unnecessarily. It is thus not clear whether screening does more good than harm.Women invited to screening
should be fully informed of both benefits and harms.

Source.... http://tinyurl.com/2c44oj

[toldyouso21]

What this article does not say, but what has been well known is that breast cancer is primarily a disease that affects white women. of the other groups that get it--the numbers that are diagnosed in time or not treated may be high--BUT the number of minority women who actually get breast cancer compared to the number of caucasian women who get it--is pretty low. Note that in all the figures about race, the article never says how many of the new cases or known cases are white women, or minorities--but if the thrust is a rising rate --why would they leave such a telling stat out? the data is manipulated--the message--other races are more sickly (especially blacks) and more prone to most diseases than whites. Stats are great things--they can be spun to make anything look worse or better than it is--just leave out the info that you don''t want or only quote the stats that support a certain position--of course if stats get more precise--a lot of stuff is revealed that otherwise diminish the original findings--in this case, the fact that proportionally more white women contract breast cancer than any other group was actually stated in the 1980s. guess that sort of stat is not popular right now--or else--like we know how many men die of breast cancer and other stuff about race--they would break down, how many of each race get breast cancer each year. Guess someone wants minorities to get more mammograms.

[godofredo29]

A twenty-two point one percent death rate among men diagnosed with breast cancer sounds like a gender gap to me. Maybe WebMD should ask Randy Gross, RN, their so-called go to guy (!) on women''s breast cancer issues. I thought these articles were supposed to be reviewed by experts!