Throwing more numbers at you this morning. In case you are interested, this is a good and user-friendly guide to breast cancer statistics from the Komen Foundation. I give you the beginning and then a link:
October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month. With breast cancer in the spotlight, you may be hearing many breast cancer statistics. Understanding how to interpret some of the most common statistics may help make the numbers more meaningful.
It's important to remember statistics describe breast cancer in groups of people and do not necessarily predict what will happen in an individual person.
Breast cancer worldwide
Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women worldwide. It is estimated that more than 1.6 million new cases of breast cancer occurred among women worldwide in 2010.1 Learn more about rates of breast cancer around the world.
Breast cancer in the United States - estimates for 2011
The table below presents the best estimates of breast cancer statistics for this year. These estimates were calculated by looking at data from years past.
In 2011, it is estimated in the United States there will be:2-3 |
| Women | Men |
Number of new invasive breast cancers diagnosed* | 230,480 | 2,140 |
Number of breast cancer deaths | 39,520 | 450 |
*Does not include new cases of non-invasive breast cancers, such as ductal carcinoma in situ (learn more). |
Although more breast cancers are expected to be diagnosed in 2011 than in 2010 (207,090 new breast cancers were expected in 2010), this does not mean the rate of new breast cancers is increasing (rates have been stable since 2003).
2 Rather, the rise in number of cases is due to our growing and aging U.S. population.
4 The more people there are, the more cancers there will be. And because our population is living longer (so there are more older people) and older age increases the risk of breast cancer, the more new cancer we expect to have.
4-5