I just read a NY Times review on a fascinating new book: BREASTS: A Natural and Unnatural History by Florence Williams. The review describes an interesting take on the female (and male) breasts, both historically and medically, but the review makes the claim that ‘the breast cancer incidence continues to rise,’ and this caught my attenti
on. Why? Because I thought that despite the awareness about breast cancer, all the magazine articles, talk shows, and just plain people talking about it….the fact is that breast cancer is in decline. So which is it? Is breast cancer increasing or decreasing.
Well, in the US, breast cancer is declining, down about 14% since 1990. Of course, there is much more to that statistical detail, and if you are interested read the NIH fact sheet:
http://report.nih.gov/nihfactsheets/ViewFactSheet.aspx?csid=73
So….breast cancer remains the preeminent cancer in women due to it’s incidence and scope, but let’s make sure we keep our facts straight and take some strength in knowing that breast cancer, at least in the US, is in decline.