Community Blog

September 29, 2006

Breast Cancer Cases Have Hit a new Record

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It is the disease women fear more than any other, and its incidence is soaring. Breast cancer cases have hit a new record, official figures show, and the increase shows no sign of slowing.

A total of 36,939 women were diagnosed in England in 2004, an 81 per cent increase in incidence of the cancer since 1971, after statistical adjustment for the ageing of the population. Over the year, 41,000 cases were diagnosed in the UK.

Breast cancer is the commonest cancer in the UK, even though it principally affects only one gender (there are a few hundred cases each year in men). Lung cancer, the next most common which affects both sexes, was diagnosed in 30,408 individuals in 2004.

The relentless upward trend in breast cancer is driven by increasing prosperity and modern lifestyles, experts say. It accounts for one in three of all newly diagnosed cases of cancer in females.