According to the American Cancer Society, there will be approximately 230,000 new invasive breast cancer diagnoses in the U.S. this year, as well as around 40,000 breast cancer-related deaths.
That’s pretty close to where those numbers were in 2012, which is the most recent data available.
And it fits the broader trend of breast cancer in America: diagnosis rates and death rates have remained fairly static or declined slightly over the last ten years on record.
The five-year survival rate for breast cancer patients is roughly 89.4 percent. But that’s heavily dependent on how far the cancer has spread in the body — the more localized the cancer is, the easier it is to treat.
The National Institutes of Health estimates the medical cost of cancer will reach $158 billion by 2020. Breast cancer accounts for about $20 billion.
Breast cancer continues to be the most common cancer in women worldwide, with nearly 1.7 million new cases in 2012.
