Facts about Breast Cancer in the USA Breast cancer is the most common form of cancer in women in the United States. Both its cause and the means for its cure remain undiscovered. About two million breast cancer survivors are alive in America today. Men can develop breast cancer too, although its incidence is low. This year, a breast cancer will be newly diagnosed every three minutes, and a woman will die from breast cancer every 12 minutes.
Every woman is at risk for breast cancer.
The risk of developing breast cancer increases as a woman ages, if she has a family history of breast cancer, has never had children or had her first child after age 30, and if she has had prior treatment with radiation therapy for Hodgkin's disease. However, over 70 percent of cases occur in women who have no identifiable risk factors. Breast cancer cannot yet be prevented. However, there is now a risk reduction option available for women at very high risk, such as the estimated five to ten percent of American women with multiple close family members who have had the disease. In 1998, the drug tamoxifen was shown to reduce breast cancer cases by 50 percent over four years in a large research study of high risk women, and tamoxifen was FDA-approved for use in this group.