Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women, aside from skin cancer.
During 2000, an estimated 182,800 new cases of breast cancer are expected to occur among women in the United States. It is the second leading cause of cancer death, after lung cancer. An estimated 40,800 women are expected to die from breast cancer this year. To predict when and in whom breast cancer will strike, scientists must often think like detectives, looking for clues to signal which women may be more likely than others to develop the disease. Scientific Detectives To identify risk factors, scientists continually examine various trends and patterns among women worldwide who are diagnosed with the disease.