Many women worry that one day, they may find a lump in their breast or that a routine mammogram will show something abnormal in the breast tissue that turns out to be cancer. That’s because breast cancer is among the most common cancers in women. A woman in the U.S. has a 1 in 8 chance of developing breast cancer over the course of her lifetime and over 3.5 million American women currently have breast cancer.
In 2021 alone, an estimated 281,550 women will be newly diagnosed with the disease. While breast cancer is a serious disease, its mortality rate has been in declining since the early 1990s. Over that same period, the 5-year survival rate has been on the rise, thanks in large part to increased use of screening mammography and improved treatments.
“The treatment of breast cancer has certainly improved over the last few decades through personalized treatment plans that are developed by multidisciplinary specialists, including those in surgery, radiation, and medical oncology based on the latest evidence in clinical trials,” says Maryam Lustberg, MD, MPH, director of The Breast Center at Smilow Cancer Hospital and chief of Breast Medical Oncology at Yale Cancer Center.
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