Breast Cancer: Facts and Risk

Facts About cancer:

1. 7.4 million (74,00,000) people died of cancer in 2004. And 83.2 million ( 8,32,00,000) people will die of cancer by 2015.
2. In women Breast cancer is was the most common cause of cancer mortality , 16% women death by cancer were caused by breast cancer.
3. Only 22% women of age group 50-69 year ,surveyed in 66 countries, had undergone a mammogram. In india less then 5% women of this group underwent for a Mammogram.
4. In India breast cancer is most common form cancer in women.
5. 1 in 26 women in India are expected to be diagnosed with breast cancer in their lifetime.
6. WHO( world health organistaion) predicts that by 2020, India will be on a par with US and Europe in the incidence of breast cancer - one in every seven women.
7. If breast cancer detected in Stage 1 ,chances of survival are 80% while in stage 3 chances of survival are 20%.
8. At present ,an estimated 100,000 women get diagnosed with breast cancer every year in India.
9. 1 in 10 women diagnosed with cancer in one breast will develop the cancer in the other breast as well.
10. Around 30,000 women die of breast cancer annually.
11. In India ,about 50% patients of breast cancer get diagnosed only at stage 3.
12. In the last 40 years, breast cancer cases have gone up by 30-40% across Indain metros.
13. A 3% per year rise in breast cancer cases in India is predicted.
14. By 2015 there will be approximately 2.5 lakh (2,50,000) new cases of breast cancer in India.

What is good :

Mortality of Breast cancer ,cervical cancer, colorectal cancer, oral cancer can be reduced by screening.


MAMMOGRAPHY:

1. Screening Mammography is an X-Ray examination of the brestes in a woman who is asymptomatic ( Has no symptoms of breast cancer).
2. It's goal is to detect cancer when the cancerous lump is still too small to be felt by a woman or her physician.
3. Mammography can find 90% of breast cancers in women over 50 years and can discover a lump up to two years before it can even be felt.
4. Early detection of small breast cancers improves a woman's chances of successful treatment.
5. Screening mammography is recommended every one or two years for women once they reach age of 40 and every year once they reach age of 50 years.
6. Physicians sometimes begin screening mammography before age 40 in patients who have a strong family history of breast cancer.