Who Gets Breast Cancer?

Most women who get breast cancer have no predisposing factors. There are however several factors which increase breast cancer risk. Advancing age and a previous history of breast cancer are the greatest risk factors, but there are others also: a family history of breast cancer; never having had children or having had the first child after age 30. Some women are at higher risk for breast cancer than others and may need checkups and mammograms more frequently.

Fast Facts About Breast Cancer

• One in eight women will develop breast cancer during her lifetime.
   
• Mammograms can detect cancer up to two years before a lump can be felt.
   
• Eighty percent of women who develop breast cancer have no family history of the disease.
   
• An estimated 182,800 new cases of breast cancer will be diagnosed in the United States this year, making it the most frequently diagnosed cancer among women.
   
• Breast cancer is currently the second leading cause of cancer death in women, with an estimated 41,200 women losing their lives to this disease during 1997--one woman every 13 minutes.
   
• More than 97 percent of women whose breast cancer is found and treated early with no spreading beyond the breast, will survive.