A new study has found that breast cancer deaths have reduced by two-thirds since the 1990s.
A study done on more than half a million women in England shows that women who were diagnosed with breast cancer since 2010 have a lower risk of dying compared to those who were diagnosed in the 90s. The findings were published in The BMJ.
Breast cancer death rates reduced: Brief about the new study
The research which took almost ten years to complete included an analysis of 512,447 women who were diagnosed with breast cancer between January 1993 and December 2015.
Participants were tracked using data from the National Cancer Registration and Analysis Service until December 2020.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention describes breast cancer as a disease in which the breast cells grow massively. There are different kinds of breast cancer a woman can develop, depending on which cell in the breast has turned cancerous.
The two most common types are invasive ductal carcinoma and invasive lobular carcinoma. Other less common types of breast cancer are inflammatory breast cancer, Paget’s disease and medullary mucinous.
It’s the most common cancer any woman can develop, but women over the age of 50 are more likely to get affected. In rare cases, men can also develop breast cancer.
Symptoms to watch out for
Symptoms for this kind of cancer can vary from one person to another, but some common signs include:
- change in the shape, size and contour of the breast
- redness around the breast or nipple
- lump in the breast or underarm
- fluid discharge from the nipple
It’s important to note that many women don’t experience any signs, and that’s why routine check-ups and mammograms are important, especially, if you have a family history of cancer.
Study findings
Researchers have found that women who were diagnosed between 1993-1999 had a 14.4% risk of dying within five years. However, the death rate reduced to 4.9% for women who were diagnosed between 2010-2015.
Carolyn Taylor, lead author of the study and oncologist at the University of Oxford, UK said:
“We knew that mortality rates had reduced during the past 20 years, but we didn’t know by how much. That’s a two-thirds reduction.”
The research showed that the mortality rate was significantly reduced for women of all age groups. The risk of death was also reduced for women whose cancer was diagnosed through proper screening and those who did not get screened.
Reasons for the leap unclear
According to researchers, the reasons behind the drop are still unclear. However, they believe that since the 90s, awareness and routine screening of cancer have risen.
Randomized trials have revealed how treatments can affect survival rates after diagnosis. So, all this could be a potential reason why death rates have reduced so massively.
However, researchers are not sure about how much reduction is due to the screening, treatment or awareness.
Two patient representatives were also involved in the study
Researchers also appointed two patient representatives to guide the aforementioned study.
Representatives helped the researchers with questions and also examined the analysis. As per the authors, representatives also provided suggestions and comments throughout the study.
To surmise, researchers reckon studies like this that help track results over many years are very important to bring up funding priorities and other strategies.
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