Breast Cancer Death Rates Continue to Drop 2% Annually

Oct. 1 -- WEDNESDAY, Sept. 30 (HealthDay News) -- Fewer women in the United States are dying from breast cancer, but disparities in death rates still exist between whites and blacks, a new report shows.

Deaths from breast cancer have dropped more than 2 percent each year since 1990. And in the past decade that decline in deaths has been shared by black, Hispanic and white women. But black women still have a 40 percent higher death rate from breast cancer than white women, according to the report, Breast Cancer Facts & Figures 2009-2010, released Wednesday by the American Cancer Society.

"The breast cancer death rate continues to decrease since the 1990s in U.S. women because of improved treatments and increased mammography screening rates," said Dr. Ahmedin Jemal, strategic director for cancer surveillance at the American Cancer Society.

The death rate from breast cancer peaked in 1989, Jemal said. "The most recent data from 2006 shows the breast cancer death rates have dropped nearly 30 percent," he said. "That's very good news."

When this data is translated into the number of women with breast cancer who did not die, some 130,000 lives were saved, he noted.

Jemal said the decline in breast cancer deaths could be accelerated with more targeted treatment, more access to mammography, and more treatment for the poor and the uninsured.

Among uninsured women, only 30 percent had a mammogram during the past two years, compared with about 70 percent of insured women, he said.

All women should have regular screening for breast cancer, Jemal said. "If breast cancer is caught early, the five-year survival rate is 98 percent, but if you catch it late the survival rate is only 24 percent," he added.

Another way to lower the risk of death from breast cancer is to promote prevention, Jemal said. This includes maintaining a healthy body weight, keeping fit through exercise, and limiting alcohol consumption, he said.