While the threat posed by breast cancer is well understood by the general public, there are plenty of facts regarding this disease that are less well known:
- There are over 2.5 million breast cancer survivors living in the United States.
- Genes certainly play a role in breast cancer risk, but they are hardly the only factor. In fact, 85 percent of those diagnosed with this condition have no family history of this disease.
- Men get breast cancer too; approximately 2,100 men develop this form of cancer annually, and 450 will succumb to it.
- Breast cancer risk is also closely linked with age. The American Cancer Society notes that a women’s odds of developing breast cancer is 1 in 69 at age 40, 1 in 42 at 50, 1 in 29 at 60, and 1 in 27 at 70.
- Believe or not, most lumps that form on breasts are benign and not indicative of cancer. The National Breast Cancer
Foundation estimates that 80 percent of such lumps are harmless.
