• Approximately 42,200 deaths will occur in women from breast cancer in 2000.

• One in eight women or 12.6% of all women will get breast cancer in her lifetime.

• Breast cancer risk increases with age and every woman is at risk.

• Every 13 minutes a woman dies of breast cancer.

• Seventy-seven percent of women with breast cancer are over 50.

• Approximately 1400 cases of breast cancer will be diagnosed in men in 2000 and 400 of those men will die.

• More than 1.7 million women who have had breast cancer are still alive in the United States.

• Breast cancer is the leading cause of cancer death in women between the ages of 15 and 54, and the second cause of cancer death in women 55 to 74.

• Seventy-one percent of black women diagnosed with breast cancer experience a five-year survival rate, while eighty-six percent of white women experience five-year survival.

• The first sign of breast cancer usually shows up on a woman's mammogram before it can be felt or any other symptoms are present.

• Risks for breast cancer include a family history, atypical hyperplasia, delaying pregnancy until after age 30 or never becoming pregnant, early menstruation (before age 12), late menopause (after age 55), current use or use in the last ten years of oral contraceptives, and daily consumption of alcohol.

• Early detection of breast cancer, through monthly breast self-exam and particularly yearly mammography after age 40, offers the best chance for survival.

• Ninety-six percent of women who find and treat breast cancer early will be cancer-free after five years.

• Over eighty percent of breast lumps are not cancerous, but benign such as fibrocystic breast disease.

• Oral contraceptives may cause a slight increase in breast cancer risk; however 10 years after discontinuing use of oral contraceptives the risk is the same as for women who never used the pill.

• Estrogen replacement therapy for over 5 years slightly increases breast cancer risk; however the increased risk appears to disappear 5-10 years after discontinuing the use of estrogen replacement therapy.

• You are never too young to develop breast cancer! Breast Self-Exam should begin by the age of twenty.

Resources:
American Cancer Society
National Cancer Institute
Komen Foundation