Breast Cancer Deaths Declining

U.S. women's breast cancer deaths dropped 24 percent from 1990 to 2003, a new study shows.

Women younger than 70 with estrogen-sensitive breast cancers had the biggest
decline in breast cancer deaths during that period.

So say breast cancer experts including Ismail Jatoi, M.D., Ph.D., who directs the Breast Care Center at the National Naval Medical Center and Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USUHS) in Bethesda, Md.

Using a national cancer database, Jatoi's team reviewed breast cancer death rates from 1990 to 2003.

They found a 24 percent drop in breast cancer deaths during that period. But the researchers didn't stop there; they took a closer look at the declining breast cancer death rate.

The researchers found that women younger than 70 had a steeper drop in their
breast cancer death rate than women aged 70 and older.

In addition, women with estrogen-sensitive breast tumors had a bigger decline in their breast cancer death rate than women whose breast tumors aren't sensitive to estrogen.

The biggest decline — a 38 percent drop in the breast cancer death rate — occurred in women younger than 70 with estrogen-sensitive breast cancers.

In contrast, women older than 70 with tumors not sensitive to estrogen showed no significant decline in breast cancer deaths.

Breast cancer screening and treatment changed between 1990 and 2003, the
researchers note. Two big changes during that time were mammography's widespread use to screen for abnormal breast tissue and the drug tamoxifen's use in treating estrogen-sensitive breast tumors.

Tamoxifen treatment may partly explain the drop in deaths from estrogen-sensitive breast tumors, note Jatoi and colleagues.

They suggest that screening mammograms may be more likely to spot slower-growing tumors, which tend to be estrogen-sensitive. However, the researchers didn't test that theory directly.

By Miranda Hitti
Reviewed by Louise Chang
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