Except for skin cancers, breast cancer is the most common cancer among American women.
According to the American Cancer Society:
- About 1 in 8 (12%) women in the U.S. will develop invasive breast cancer during their lifetime.
- In 2019, an estimated 268,600 new cases of invasive breast cancer are expected to be diagnosed in women in the U.S., along with 62,930 new cases of non-invasive (in situ) breast cancer.
- About 41,760 women in the U.S. are expected to die in 2019 from breast cancer, though death rates have been decreasing since 1989.
- There are currently more than 3.1 million breast cancer survivors in the United States.
Physicians and experts agree that early detection can be the key to defeating breast cancer. Early detection saves thousands of lives every year. Routine screening examinations and mammograms can often detect breast cancer before any symptoms have developed, and women who notice a lump on their breast will usually follow up with their physician for further testing to determine whether cancer is present.
When a physician suspects that cancer is present, he/she should perform a microscopic analysis of the breast tissue via biopsy to confirm the diagnosis, determine whether the cancer is benign or malignant, and evaluate the extent of the spread of the cancer.