Seventy-five percent of women who have small tumors that are diagnosed before the cancer spreads to other parts of the body survive beyond 10 years after the cancer is first diagnosed. At first, the cancer is a small, firm, usually painless lump, not noticeable unless someone is looking for it. With time it grows and spreads to nearby areas, such as muscle or skin, as well as the lymph nodes under the arm. Ultimately, the tumor can spread to vital organs such as the liver, brain and lungs. In 1999, an estimated 175,000 new cases of invasive breast cancer will be diagnosed among women in the United States, and an estimated 43,700 will die.
Any woman can get breast cancer.
Although it is much less common, males too can develop breast cancer. Some women are more likely to develop breast cancer than others. Two factors that are being evaluated for possible links to breast cancer are obesity and regular alcohol consumption. There is no definite evidence as yet that prolonged use of birth control pills causes breast cancer, but this possibility also continues to be investigated. Significant findings have recently been made about the genetic basis of breast cancer that runs in families.