Breast Cancer Deaths Fall

Filed in archive Breast Cancer on September 26, 2007

The American Cancer Society announced on Tuesday that the death rate from cancer is dropping by 2 percent per year. That's great news for women suffering from the disease. However, African-American women and young women were not so lucky. The group found that breast cancer rates remained stable.

If you're at risk for breast cancer or over the age of 45, please make an appointment to get a mammogram. It could save your life.

"While many women live in fear of breast cancer, this report shows a woman today has a lower chance of dying from breast cancer than she's had in decades," Dr. Harmon Eyre, chief medical officer of the American Cancer Society, said in a statement.

The report, titled "Breast Cancer Facts & Figures 2007-2008," also shows that about 2.4 million U.S. women alive in 2004 had a history of breast cancer.

The American Cancer Society predicts that 180,510 new cases of breast cancer will be diagnosed in 2007, and 40,910 women and men will die from it.

In January the U.S. CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL AND PREVENTION reported a slight 2 percent drop in the number of women getting regular mammograms, which can help doctors diagnose breast cancer early, when it is the most treatable.