The Facts, the Stats, the Fiction

October is breast cancer awareness month!

Taken from Cancer Research UK, Information Service Division Scotland and Wales Cancer Surveillance and Intelligence Unit

 The facts:

·         Approximately 81 per cent of breast cancers occur in women over the age of 50

·         More people are being diagnosed with breast cancer but survival rates are improving – probably as a result of improved treatment and earlier detection

·         Breast cancer also affects men, but it is rare – more than 300 men are diagnosed each year.

The stats:

In the UK:

·         nearly 50,000 people are diagnosed with breast cancer each year in the UK. That’s one person every 10 minutes

·         Around 18,000 mastectomies are carried out in the UK each year

·         breast cancer is the second biggest cause of death from cancer for women in the UK, after lung cancer

·         there are an estimated 550,000 people living in the UK today who have had a diagnosis of breast cancer

·         The one year survival rate for cancer patients is 96%

·         The five year survival rate for cancer patients is 85%

·         The ten year survival rate for cancer patients is 77%

 In Scotland:

·         just over 4,000 people are diagnosed with breast cancer in Scotland each year and around 20 of these are men

·         1.4 per cent of women in Scotland have been diagnosed with breast cancer at some point in their lives.

 

The fiction:

·         Five years past diagnosis means I’ve got the ‘all clear’. As well as potentially experiencing long-term side effects of treatment, patients face the uncertainty that their cancer could return at any time – including a diagnosis of secondary breast cancer which can’t be cured, only controlled.

·         Breast cancer is mainly a hereditary disease. Breast cancer can run in families, but fewer than 10 per cent of cases are as a result of an inherited faulty gene.

 

 Other facts:

 October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month

 Tumours are more likely to be malignant when they are firm and have irregular shapes, while benign tumours are more likely to feel round or soft

The most common type of breast cancer (70%) originates in the breast ducts and is known as ductal carcinoma.

A less common type of breast cancer (15%) is known as lobular carcinoma, or cancer that originates in the lobules.

 More rare types of cancers include medullary carcinoma, Paget’s disease, tubular carcinoma, inflammatory breast cancer, and phyllodes tumors

Non-invasive cancers stay within the milk ducts or lobules in the breast. (In situ carcinoma)They do not grow into or invade normal tissues within or beyond the breast.

Invasive cancers grow into the normal, healthy tissues.

Women in the UK, between 50 and 70 years of age are invited for mammogram breast screening every three years.