In order to talk about breast cancer it’s important to get into the numbers that lie behind breast cancer. Here is a run down on the numbers in this growing and deadly, but also easily preventable disease.
All the significant data seems to suggest that breast cancer is on the downslide all over the country. This is in part due to the significant increase in awareness, but starting in 1999 there has been a decrease of 2.3% per year.
Now men however, haven’t shown much change in their disease. While breast cancer is a rare disease and still affects 1% of all breast cancer cases. This trend has continued steadily between 1975 and 2006. However, since that time there has been a 0.9% increase each year. This is why it’s becoming more and more important for men to be screened and do to self exams. The reason for this decrease is truly not known and it’s something that is going up for no explainable reason.
Like women the incident of men who have breast cancer increases with age. However, one thing is not similar. That’s that a number of incidents are high in African-American men as opposed to white men. While the mortality rate is higher for african-American women, the incident of it is higher in the white women.
Here is something that might scare the men into testing: there are studies that have proven that because of the poor screening that men often show for the cancer that they are likely to die from it moreso than a woman. This is because once they are diagnosed they are far more likely to be in an advanced stage.
These facts should scare everyone into getting tested as soon as humanly possible. Simple screenings could easily just save your life.