Others compare the disease to the plague. To hear some who speak loudest in the current campaign against the disease, you might think that breast cancer is the leading killer of women. Heart disease is No. 1. In fact, according to records from the National Center for Health Statistics, women are nine times more likely to die of heart disease than of breast cancer. Breast cancer isn't even the most dangerous form of cancer for women.
Lung cancer kills more women.
That's a considerable number but less than publicity leads many people to suppose. This also means that 96.4 of women die from other causes. Breast cancer's status as a killer, incidentally, is only a little higher than that of influenza and pneumonia. These diseases, however, garner fewer headlines and demonstrations. And, even though lung cancer kills more women each year than does breast cancer, it, too, lacks much of the emotional drive that spurs advocates against breast cancer.