The Commercial Appeal

Breast Cancer Awareness Month’s numbers tell the toll

- Kristi L. Nelson Knoxville News Sentinel USA TODAY NETWORK - TENNESSEE SHAWN MILLSAPS

It’s Breast Cancer Awareness Month — 31 days of the ubiquitous pink ribbon. Here are some other stats to know about breast cancer.

women, or will get breast cancer sometime in their lives. For many women, it won’t occur until they’re an advanced age.

new cases of breast cancer in U.S. women are predicted this year by the American Cancer Society.

women will die of breast cancer in 2018, the ACS predicts; it’s the second-leading cause of cancer death among women, behind lung cancer. Still, only American women will die of breast cancer — 2.6 percent.

1 in 8 266,120 40,920 1 in 38 12 percent, 3.1 million

U.S. breast cancer survivors is the current estimate.

is how often the U.S. Preventive Services task force recommends women ages get a screening mammogram.

is the overall estimate of reduced mortality among women because of screening mammograms.

years old is the age group most likely to avoid death by getting a screening mammogram.

1-2 years 40 percent 60-69 40- to 49-year-olds 50-74

should weigh the risks and benefits of getting a mammogram, the task force said, because of a higher risk of false positives, unnecessar­y biopsies and treatment of cancers that, if left alone, wouldn’t kill women in their lifetime.

Get a mammogram if you have a parent, sibling or child with cancer; know you have an underlying genetic mutation, such as the BRCA1 or BRCA2 genes; or have a history of chest radiation at a young age.

$16.5 billion

was the cost of treating breast cancer in the U.S. in 2016. It’s estimated to hit by 2020.

U.S. cancer patients file for bankruptcy.

8 $20.5 billion $180 billion 1 in

is the annual cost of health care expenses and lost productivi­ty related to breast cancer.

 ??  ?? Grace Magulies, 11, signs the name of her grandmothe­r, Lola Grace, a cancer victim, alongside friend Lily Baker, 10, who signed the name of her mom, Jessica Baker, a cancer survivor, during the 2016 American Cancer Society Making Strides Against Breast Cancer walk at the World's Fair Park.
Grace Magulies, 11, signs the name of her grandmothe­r, Lola Grace, a cancer victim, alongside friend Lily Baker, 10, who signed the name of her mom, Jessica Baker, a cancer survivor, during the 2016 American Cancer Society Making Strides Against Breast Cancer walk at the World's Fair Park.

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