Breast Cancer facts

Q. How many women alive today have ever had breast cancer?

A. The National Cancer Institute estimates that about 2.6 million U.S. women with a history of breast cancer were alive in January 2008, more than half of whom were diagnosed less than 10 years earlier.

Q. Who gets breast cancer?

A. Excluding cancers of the skin, breast cancer is the most common cancer among women, accounting for nearly 1 in 3 cancers diagnosed in U.S. women.

Age: Breast cancer incidence and death rates generally increase with age. Ninety-five percent of new cases and 97 percent of breast cancer deaths occurred in women 40 years of age and older.

During 2004-2008, among adult women, those age 20-24 had the lowest incidence rate, 1.5 cases per 100,000 women; women age 75-79 had the highest incidence rate, 421.3 cases per 100,000. The decrease in incidence rates that occurs in women age 80 and older may reflect lower rates of screening, the detection of cancers by mammography before age 80, and/or incomplete detection.

During 2004-2008, the median age at the time of breast cancer diagnosis was 61. This means that 50 percent of women who developed breast cancer were age 61 or younger at the time of diagnosis.

American Cancer Society