Facts

• A woman dies of breast cancer every 11 minutes.
  
• Scientists do not yet know what causes breast cancer.
  
• Breast cancer is one of the most curable of all chronic illness.
• Early detection is the key
• By the time you finish reviewing this website another woman will be diagnosed with breast cancer.

Statistics

• This year, approximately 182,800 women in the United States will be diagnosed with invasive breast cancer, and approximately 40,800 women will die from breast cancer.
• Over 75% of women who are diagnosed with breast cancer are age 50 or older.
• Men can get breast cancer, although this is very rare. For every man who is diagnosed, over 100 women are found to have breast cancer.
• About 5-10% of all breast cancers are inherited. Children can inherit an altered breast cancer susceptibility gene from either their mother or father.
• Most women - about 80% - who get breast cancer do not have a sister or mother who has breast cancer.
• Excluding skin cancer, breast cancer is the most common cancer in women.
• Although the lifetime risk of breast cancer is 1 in 8, the chances of getting breast cancer by age 50 are 1 in 54. By age 60, the chances are 1 in 23.
• In the 1990s, the breast cancer death rate has declined by the largest amount in over 65 years.
• Heart disease, not breast cancer, is the leading killer of women.
• Women under the age of 40 account for only 5% of breast cancer cases.
• Nearly 97% of women who are diagnosed with breast cancer at an early stage survive for more than 5 years.