Critical Data on Breast Cancer Rates and Mortality

 This transcript has been edited for clarity. 

Hello. I’m Dr Maurie Markman from City of Hope. I’d like to briefly discuss a very important analysis. These data are familiar to many of you, but I think the actual numbers and objective data are meaningful and are something that we need to pay attention to.

The article I’m referring to is titled “Breast Cancer Statistics 2024.” These data were published in CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians. 

This analysis shows [that] based on large population-based data, the incidence of breast cancer in the United States increased approximately 1% annually between the years 2012 and 2021. That’s what we’re talking about here. 

This is largely confined to localized disease and hormone receptor–positive disease. The good news is, even though the incidence is going up slowly, this is a very treatable, highly curable disease. 

However, in the same period of time, the incidence [rate] is going up more rapidly in women under the age of 50, at 1.4% annually vs 0.7% for women over the age of 50. We’re seeing a higher increased risk in the younger patient population. There are a variety of reasons that can be speculated for this; one important example is the increase in risk for obesity in this country.

The critically important good news is that, overall, the breast cancer death rate has continually fallen from 1989 to 2022. Breast cancer deaths have decreased by a rate of 44%, which was estimated in this analysis to total 517,900 fewer deaths during this time period because of prevention strategies, critical screening strategies, and of course, treatment strategies.

It is noted, however, in this report that the mortality rate for Black women was 38% higher than in the White population, despite a 5% lower incidence of breast cancer. Obviously, there are reasons for this that we know and reasons that we probably don’t know related to biology that we need to understand better.

This is a very interesting analysis presenting important, positive data in terms of the impact of mortality. However, the incidence of breast cancer is not going down and this is of particular concern, I would argue, in the younger patient population. 

https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/critical-data-breast-cancer-rates-and-mortality-2025a10006er