BREAST cancer is the most common cancer experienced by women in Australia.
An Australian woman’s lifetime risk for developing breast cancer is one in eight.
Each year, more than 13,000 Australian women are diagnosed with breast cancer. That’s 36 women every day.
The number of Australian women diagnosed with breast cancer has doubled in the past 20 years.
The risk of breast cancer increases with age.
The average age of Australian women diagnosed with breast cancer is 60.
More than 75 per cent of breast cancers develop in women aged 50 or older. Young women can get breast cancer too – about 700 women under the age of 40 are diagnosed each year.
Nine out of 10 lumps aren’t cancer.
About 87 per cent of Australian women diagnosed with breast cancer today can expect to be living five years after their diagnosis. This compares with 71 per cent of women for the period 1982-86.
Each year, more than 2600 Australian women die from breast cancer.
Source: Breast Cancer Network Australia.
