DES MOINES, IOWA - September 27, 2010 - This year, an estimated 207,090 women in the United States will be diagnosed with invasive breast cancer, including over 2,000 in Iowa. Excluding cancers of the skin, breast cancer is the most frequently diagnosed cancer in women. According to the American Cancer Society, the best way to find breast cancer early - when it is easiest to treat - is for women to get a mammogram every year starting at age 40 and continuing for as long as they are in good health.
Thanks to mammography, doctors are now catching smaller tumors, and a woman's risk of dying of breast cancer has now dropped 31 percent since mortality rates peaked in 1989. Breast cancer, however, still ranks second among cancer deaths in women (after lung cancer). Mammography can identify breast cancer at an early stage, usually before physical symptoms develop when the disease is most treatable. The five-year survival rate for breast cancer is 98 percent among individuals whose cancer is has not spread beyond the breast at the time of diagnosis.
"This is one screening test I recommend unequivocally, and would recommend to any woman 40 and over, be she a patient, a stranger, or a family member," says Otis W. Brawley, MD, national chief medical officer of the American Cancer Society.
The American Cancer Society has spent more on breast cancer research than on any other cancer - having invested more than $418.7 million in breast cancer research grants since 1971. The majority of the Society's basic cancer research projects also have a potential benefit for breast cancer. The Society has played a part in many major breast cancer research breakthroughs in recent history.
The American Cancer Society also offers people facing breast cancer free services to overcome daily challenges, like transportation, lodging, guidance through every step of the cancer experience, and information to help them make decisions about their care.
Both men and women can sign up for an email mammogram reminder and watch the progress we're making online. The e-mammogram reminder will help light a state map of Iowa pink. Please visit http://www.cancer.org/InYourArea/Midwest/AreaHighlights/pink-out-iowa.
For additional information about breast cancer, please call the American Cancer Society at 1-800-227-2345 or visit http://www.cancer.org/.
The American Cancer Society combines an unyielding passion with nearly a century of experience to save lives and end cancer for good. As a global grassroots force of three million volunteers, we fight for every birthday threatened by every cancer in every community. We save lives by helping you stay well by preventing cancer or detecting it early, helping you get well by being there for you during and after a diagnosis, by finding cures through groundbreaking discovery and fighting back through public policy. As the nation's largest non-governmental investor in cancer research, contributing about $3.4 billion, we turn what we know about cancer into what we do. As a result, more than 11 million people in America who have had cancer and countless more who have avoided it will be celebrating birthdays this year. To learn more about us or to get help, call us any time, day or night, at 1-800-227-2345 or visit
http://www.cancer.org/
