The Comprehensive Cancer Center
at Rhode Island, The Miriam and Newport Hospitals

Breast Cancer: The Facts

The Numbers

• Breast cancer accounts for 30 percent of all cancer in women.
  
  
• Breast cancer will strike more than 200,000 times this year.
  
  
• Approximately 40,140 women will lose their lives to breast cancer this year.
  
  
• This year, 150 breast cancer deaths will occur in Rhode Island.
  
  
• From 1996 to 2000, 96 percent of breast cancer deaths occurred in women ages 40 and older.

Five Things to Tell Your Friends About Breast Cancer

1. All women can get breast cancer—even those who have no family history of the disease.

2. The two most important factors for breast cancer are being a woman and growing older.

3. Women diagnosed with early breast cancer, when the cancer is small and has not spread, have a high chance of survival. Mammograms are the best way to find breast cancer early. Get one every year starting at age 40. If you notice any breast changes, tell your doctor without delay.

4. You can help reduce your risk of developing breast cancer by engaging in regular physical activity, maintaining a healthy weight, and limiting alcohol intake.

5. Through early detection and improved treatments, more women than ever are surviving breast cancer.

Inflammatory Breast Cancer

Male Breast Cancer

Source: American Cancer Society

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