Good Morning America kicked off Breast Cancer Awareness Month with 2024 statistics yesterday.
According to the National Breast Cancer Foundation’s Breast Cancer Facts & Stats, in 2024, it is estimated that in the United States:
- 310,720 new cases of invasive breast cancer will be diagnosed in women
Invasive breast cancer has spread to surrounding breast tissue
- 56,500 new cases of noninvasive breast cancer will be diagnosed in women
- 1 in 8 women, 13% of the female population, will develop breast cancer over their lifetime. Have you done your monthly breast exam?
- 3 out of 10 new female cancer diagnoses will be breast cancer
- Every 2 minutes, a woman is diagnosed with breast cancer. In the time it has taken you to read this newsletter, 8 women have been diagnosed with breast cancer.
Breast Cancer Disparities
On average, women are diagnosed with breast cancer at age 62. However, for specific groups, the age of diagnosis varies: 57 for Asian American/Pacific Island and Hispanic women, 60 for American Indian/Alaska Native and Black women, and 64 for White women. Due to being diagnosed at younger ages, American Indian/Alaska Native, Asian American/Pacific Island, Black, and Hispanic women also tend to die at younger ages, between 63 and 64 years, compared to 70 years for White women. (p. 3).
Black women were more likely to be diagnosed with high grade and large tumors (greater than 5cm), and the proportion of Black with HR‐negative/HER2‐negative (triple‐negative) breast cancer(19%) was higher than all other groups (9%–11) (p. 4). AAPI women have a 21% lower breast cancer incidence compared to White women; however, Native Hawaiian women have an 11% higher incidence relative to White women. Additionally, being born in the US seems to increase the incidence rate for Hispanic women by 38% relative to foreign-born Hispanic women (p. 4).
It is difficult to obtain accurate survival rates for AAPI and Hispanic women due to the high number of foreign-born women who may return to their home countries, making it challenging to track their outcomes. Because of this, their survival rates are thought to be overestimated, even though they appear to be similar to those of White women. When AAPI data is broken down, the 5-year survival rate for Japanese women is the highest at 94%, while it is the lowest at 44% for Tongan women. Black women have the highest mortality rate in every age group except for the 75–79 age group. The mortality rate for Black women is 38% higher than that of White women and more than double that of AAPI women (p. 7). Within Black women, Caribbean-born women have higher survival rates than US-born Black women (p. 9).
(Un)E qual Progress
Since 1990, there has been a 43% reduction in the breast cancer death rate for White women. The decrease in the death rate was 31%–32% for Hispanic and Black women, 13% for AAPI women, and unchanged for AIAN women. The decline in death rates for the recent decade is lower, with an annual decline between 1%–1.4% in White and Black women and 0.7% in Hispanic women (p. 9). Much of this progress is attributed to “advances in the treatment of stage I–III diseases (47%) and metastatic disease (29%), with an additional 25% associated with earlier detection through screening” (p. 9). The most common cause of death for a woman diagnosed with breast cancer is “metastatic disease to various organs, accounting for 42% of all deaths“.
In 2024, it is estimated that 42,250 women will die from breast cancer. My Aunt Jill, who was a survivor for 29 years, lost her battle with metastatic breast cancer on September 26, 2024. Additionally, there will be 4 million women who are breast cancer survivors, including my former running partner, Charlene.
Lowering the age for mammogram screening was a policy change made in response to the increasing number of younger women being diagnosed with breast cancer. I believe it is time for another policy change – implementing regular screening to detect if a breast cancer survivor has developed metastatic breast cancer. Currently, MRI/CT scans are not conducted until symptoms indicating the spread of cancer are present, which may be too late for effective treatment that could improve the 5-year survival rates.
My condolences to all who have lost a loved one to breast cancer. To all who have completed chemotherapy or prescribed treatment, congratulations!
