Improvements in screening and treatment are associated with a 58% decline in breast cancer mortality since the mid-1970s in the United States.
- A study reveals that in the United States, mortality due to breast cancer has fallen drastically in recent decades, from 48 per 100,000 women in 1975 to 27 per 100,000 in 2019.
- The reason is the combined improvements in screening and treatment, associated with a 58% drop in breast cancer mortality since the mid-1970s.
- One in eight women develop breast cancer during their lifetime, with an increased risk between the ages of 50 and 74, according to Health Insurance. However, this cancer is cured in nine out of ten cases when detected early.
New proof of the vital importance of mammograms. Across the Atlantic, mortality due to breast cancer has fallen drastically in recent decades, from 48 per 100,000 women in 1975 to 27 per 100,000 in 2019, thanks to advances in treatment and screening. This is the conclusion of a recent study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
Screening and treatment associated with reduced mortality for breast cancer
To arrive at these figures, researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine in California used four models of breast cancer established by the Cancer Intervention and Surveillance Network (CISNET). These took into account in particular the incidence of the disease, screening coverage or even the advantages of early treatment, in order to estimate the supposed link between treatment and the reduction in mortality due to cancer of the breast.
Statistical models revealed that 55% to 61% of the decline in breast cancer mortality between 1975 and 2019 was “associated with combined improvements in screening and treatment”, we can read in the study. In detail, almost half (47%) of this reduction was linked to the treatment of the disease taken at an early stage, while a quarter (25%) was associated with mammography screening, and another quarter (29%) %) for the treatment of metastatic, i.e. already advanced, breast cancer.
Detected early, breast cancer is cured in 9 out of 10 cases
The study emphasizes, however, that the reduction in mortality is not distributed equally among all American patients. Thus, rural, black, and medically uninsured populations remain most at risk of dying from breast cancer, much more than urban, white, and insured people.
No less than one in eight women develop breast cancer during their lifetime, with a particularly increased risk between the ages of 50 and 74, according to Health Insurance. As this study conducted in the United States suggests, however, this cancer is cured in nine out of ten cases when detected early. However, in 2022, more than half of French women aged 50 to 74 have not had mammograms and examinations to detect possible cancer, according to a recent survey by the League Against Cancer.