Breast cancer is the most common cancer occurring among women in the United States. The incidence of breast cancer increases with age, rising sharply after age 40. Nearly 80% of invasive breast cancers in the United States occur among women 50 years of age and older.
Men can develop breast cancer, although the incidence is very low (less than 1%). While the incidence of breast cancer has been increasing, breast cancer mortality has slowly declined. Breast cancer mortality should be kept in perspective with two other leading causes of death among women. Since 1987 lung cancer has surpassed breast cancer in causing deaths, attributed to the increase in smoking among women. Heart disease is still the greatest threat to older women and causes four times the number of deaths as breast cancer in women over the age of 55.
Generally, the stage at which breast cancer is diagnosed is critical because survival rates increase dramatically with earlier detection. The five year U.S. national survival rate is 97% when breast cancer is diagnosed at a local stage (confined to the breast), 76% when diagnosed at a regional stage (spread to surrounding tissue), and only 21% when diagnosed at a distant stage (the cancer has metastasized).
Although the causes of breast cancer have not been fully exposed, it has become clear that hormonal manipulation may have a therapeutic impact on the course of the disease. This is why the tumors, when removed during surgery, are studied to find whether or not they are estrogen-receptor positive or negative. If the cancer is estrogen-receptor positive, theoretically there should be a response to manipulation of estrogen.
There are many alternative books available for preventing and dealing with breast cancer. Getting as much accurate information as possible is critical in giving you the edge you need to overcome this condition.
What Your Doctor May Not Tell You About Breast Cancer : How Hormone Balance Can Help Save Your Life by John R. Lee M.D. is one example among many. As new books are coming out, check on the Internet for book reviews and popularity and take a trip to the bookstore to see what the latest offerings are. What happens is really up to you.
Women diagnosed with breast cancer carrying the BRCA1 or BRCA2 gene mutations, which are thought to increase the risk of developing the disease, have similar survival and death rates as women not carrying the mutations, according to a study published Thursday in the New England Journal of Medicine (July 12, 2007), the Wall Street Journal reports.
For the study, Gad Rennert, chair of the medical faculty at Technion Israel Institute of Technology, and colleagues examined the 10-year survival rate of 1,545 women diagnosed with breast cancer (Pereira, Wall Street Journal, 7/12). The participants were treated at 22 hospitals in Israel, Reuters reports. The study found that the 10-year survival rate was 67% for women carrying a BRCA1 mutation, 56% for those carrying a BRCA2 mutation and 67% for the participants who did not carry the gene mutations. According to researchers, the difference in survival rates was not statistically significant.