Breast cancer deaths in the United States have declined continuously about 2 percent a year since 1990, according to a new report from the American Cancer Society.
The report estimates that about 192,370 American women will be diagnosed with the disease in 2009 and 40,170 will die from it. Only lung cancer accounts for more cancer deaths in women.
For the last 10 years of that period, death rates in black women have declined at the same rate as those in Caucasians, but the death rate still remains 40 percent higher in that group.
Based on the latest data, relative survival rates for women with breast cancer are:
82 percent after 10 years;
75 percent after 15 years.
Between 1999 and 2006, the most recent year for which data are available, the incidence declined by an average of 2 percent per year. That average was driven by a sharp decrease in incidence between 2002 and 2003, a period during which large numbers of women stopped using hormone replacement therapy because of the new data about its risks.
Some of the declining incidence may also be attributable to decreased use of mammography during the period.
About 1 percent of all U.S. breast cancer cases occur in men and the incidence has been growing at about 0.9 percent per year since 1975. Death rates have remained essentially constant during the period, however.
Risk factors for male breast cancer include BRCA gene mutations, Klinefelter syndrome, testicular disorders, family history of male or female breast cancer and obesity.
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