Pathways Contact PEIA Home Return to Index Breast Cancer and Breast Self-Examination Breast cancer is the most common form of cancer among women, accounting for 30 percent of cancers women get. Over the course of her lifetime, a woman's risk for breast cancer is one in eight. Each year, there are approximately 185,000 new cases of breast cancer and 45,000 deaths from it. Only lung cancer causes more cancer deaths among women.
Men can also develop breast cancer, but it is very unusual.
About 300 men die each year from the disease. Breast cancer results from malignant tumors which invade and destroy normal tissue. When these tumors break away and spread to other parts of the body, it is called metastasis. Breast cancers can spread to the lymph nodes, lungs, liver, bone and brain. Age is the number one risk factor for breast cancer.