2005 U.S. Breast Cancer Fact Sheet

•An estimated 211,240 new cases of invasive breast cancer are expected to occur
among women in the United States during 2005.

•In addition to invasive breast cancer, 58,490 new cases of in situ breast cancer are
expected to occur among women during 2005.

•Lobular carcinoma in site (LCIS) accounted for 12 percent of in situ breast cancers
diagnosed from 1998-2002.

•Excluding skin cancers, breast cancer is the most common cancer among women,
accounting for nearly 1 in 3 cancers diagnosed in US women.

•An estimated 40,410 women will die from breast cancer in 2005.

•Breast cancer is second only to lung cancer in cancer deaths.

•One woman is diagnosed with breast cancer every three minutes, and one woman will
die of breast cancer every 13 minutes in the United States.

One every three minutes is derived from the following equation:
365 days/yr X 24 hr/day X 60 min/hr = 525,600 minutes in each year
525,600 / 215,990 women diagnosed/yr = 2.43 = 3
One woman every three minutes is diagnosed with breast cancer.

One every thirteen minutes is derived from the following equation:
365 days/yr X 24 hr/day X 60 min/hr = 525,600 minutes in each year
525,600 / 40,110 women diagnosed/yr = 13.10 = 13
One woman every 13 minutes dies from breast cancer.

•An estimated 1,690 new cases of breast cancer will be diagnosed in men in 2005.

•Between 1975-2002, the incidence rate among men increased 1.1 percent per year.

•An estimated 460 men will die from breast cancer in 2005.

•The relative survival rates for women diagnosed with breast cancer are:
o 88 percent at 5 years after diagnosis
o 80 percent after 10 years
o 71 percent after 15 years
o 63 percent after 20 years

•The 5-year relative survival rate for women with localized breast cancer (cancer that
has not spread to lymph nodes or other locations outside the breast) has increased from 72 percent in the 1940s to over 95 percent in 2005.

•The five-year survival rate for regional disease is 81 percent and 26 percent for
distant-stage disease.

•The relative survival rates for women diagnosed with breast cancer before age 40 are
slightly lower.
o 82 percent for women younger then 40
o 89 percent for women aged 40-74
o 88 percent for women aged 75 and older

•African American women are less likely to survive five years then white women, 76
percent vs. 90 percent respectively.

•The most proven and significant risk factors for getting breast cancer are being
female and getting older.

•Approximately five to ten percent of breast cancers are due to heredity. The majority
of women with breast cancer have no known significant family history or other
known risk factors.

•A woman’s chance of developing breast cancer increases with age. In the United
States, a woman has about a 13.2 percent, or 1 in 8, lifetime risk of developing breast
cancer.

•Incidence trends of breast cancer for all races are as follows:
•1975-1980: Incidence was essentially constant
•1980-1987: Incidence increased by almost 4 percent per year
•1987-2002: Incidence rates increased by 0.3 percent per year

•For the period 1998-2002, women ages 20-24 have the lowest incidence rate (1.3
cases per 100,000 population); women ages 75-79 have the highest incidence rate
(496.6 cases per 100,000).

•During 1998-2002, the median age at the time of breast cancer diagnosis was 61 years
old.

•From 1980-1987, incidence rates of invasive breast cancer increased among women
aged 40-29 and 50 and older (3.5 percent and 4.2 percent per year respectively). Since
then, breast cancer incidence rates have increased among women aged 50 and older,
though at a slower rate. Incidence rates have declines slightly among women aged
40-49 and little change among women younger then 40.

•Rapid incidence increase between 1980 and 1987 is due largely to greater use of
mammography screening and increased detection of breast cancers.

•During 1980-1987, incidence rates of smaller tumors _ 2.0cm more than doubled.
Rates of larger tumors (3.0 cm or more) decreased 27 percent.

•During 1988-1999, the trend in diagnosis of smaller tumors _ 2.0cm increased by 2.1
percent per year and has stabilized since.

•During 1992-2000, African American women were less likely to be diagnosed with
smaller tumors (_ 2.0cm) and more likely to be diagnosed with larger tumors (2.1-5.0
and >5.0 cm) then white women.

•White women have a higher incidence of breast cancer than African American after
age 35. However, African American women have a slightly higher incidence rate
before age 35 and are more likely to die from breast cancer at every age.

•During 1992-2002, overall incidence rates increased in Asian Americans and Pacific
Islanders (1.5 percent per year), decreased in American Indian/Alaska Natives (3.5
percent per year) and did not change significantly for Caucasians, African Americans
or Hispanics/Latinas.

•Mortality trends of breast cancer for all races are as follows:
•1975-1990: Mortality rate increased by 0.4 percent per year
•1990-2002: Mortality rate decreased by 2.3 percent per year

•From 1990-2002, death rates decreased by 3.3 percent per year among women
younger then 50 and by 2.0 percent per year among women 50 and older.

•From 1990-2002, breast cancer death rates declined by 2.4 percent per year in whites,
1.8 percent in Hispanics/Latinas, 1.0 percent ion African Americans and Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders and did not decline in American Indian/Alaska Natives.

•African Americans have the highest death rate from breast cancer of any racial/ethnic
group in the United States.

•Since 2002, death rates have been 37 percent higher in African Americans than in
white women.

•The chance of a woman dying from breast cancer is about 1 in 33 (3 percent).

•Ninety-five percent of new cases and 97 percent of breast cancer deaths reported
during 1996-2002 occurred in women ages 40 and older.


Source: American Cancer Society, Surveillance Research, 2003.
www.cancer.org