Survival rates soar
Abreast-cancer diagnosis can be a devastating blow. Upon receiving such a diagnosis, people may begin to ask questions about treatment and the impact cancer may have on their personal lives. Many people who are diagnosed with cancer also begin to wonder about their mortality.
An estimated 266,120 new cases of invasive breast cancer and 63,960 new cases of noninvasive, or in situ, breast cancer are expected to be diagnosed among women in the United States this year, according to breast cancer.org. The good news is that breast-cancer incidence rates began decreasing in 2000 after increasing for the previous two decades. In addition, death rates from breast cancer have been decreasing steadily since 1989. The National Cancer Institute states that the change in age-adjusted mortality rates are an indicator of the progress being made in the fight against breast cancer. The most recent SEER Cancer Statistics Review released in April 2018 indicates cancer death rates among women decreased by 1.4 percent per year between 2006 and 2015. According to the American Cancer Society, decreasing death rates among major cancer types, including prostate, colorectal, lung and breast cancers, are driving the overall shift in survival.The ACS said breast cancer death rates among women declined by about 39 percent from 1989 to 2015. That progress is attributed to improvements in early detection and treatment protocols. For anyone doing the math, over the past 25 years or so, the lives of 322,000 people with breast cancer have been saved. Increased knowledge about breast cancer, early detection through examinations and mammography, and improved treatments are helping drive up the survival rates of people with breast cancer. Although this does not make diagnosis any less scary, it does offer hope to those recently diagnosed.