Breast Cancer Facts

In the United Kingdom more women experience breast cancer than any other form of cancer, except cancer of the skin.² Here are a few facts about breast cancer:

• 5-year survival rate for breast cancer for women in England, observed during 2000-2006 is 82%¹
• Breast cancer is now the most common cancer in the UK¹
• the lifetime risk of being diagnosed with breast cancer is 1 in 8 for women in the UK¹
• in the UK in 2008 almost 47,700 women were diagnosed with breast cancer - that is around 130 women a day¹
• mammography alone reduces the relative risk of dying from breast cancer by only about 23%.²
• women diagnosed while breast cancer is confined to the breast have a cure rate approaching 100%.²

Sources:
¹Cancer Research UK, www.cancerresearchuk.org/
²Chapman, C. et al., March 2007, “Autoantibodies in Breast Cancer: Their Use as an Aid to Early Diagnosis.”, Annals of Oncology (online publication), 18:868-873.