Breast cancer death rates have HALVED since 80s thanks to ‘immense’ breakthroughs
BREAST cancer death rates in Britain have halved since the 1980s, figures show.
Cancer Research UK says treatment and testing breakthroughs mean women now enjoy years of precious extra time with their families.
The charity estimates that for each year from 2023 to 2025 there will be 29 deaths from breast cancer for every 100,000 women in the UK.
This is down from 59 per 100,000 between 1987 and 1989 – a 51 per cent drop.
Chief executive of the charity, Michelle Mitchell, said: “Great progress has been made on improving breast cancer survival over the last 35 years.
“Research has discovered more effective and kinder treatments, and allowed us to detect the disease earlier when treatment is more likely to be successful.”
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Breast cancer is the most common form of the disease in Britain with around 56,000 women diagnosed every year.
All women between the ages of 53 and 71 are offered a mammogram cancer check every three years for free on the NHS.
Almost eight in 10 patients with breast cancer – 78 per cent – now survive for 10 years or longer after their diagnosis.
This compares to just 48 per cent in 1981.
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Cancer Research UK analysis showed the five-year survival has increased from 61 per cent to 87 per cent in the same time, and one-year survival from 86 per cent to 96 per cent.
The total number of deaths is falling slower, with around 10,800 per year compared to 15,400 in the late 80s, because the population has grown.
Professor Carlos Caldas, cancer medicine expert at Cambridge University, called the improvements “really extraordinary”.
He said: “We are simply better at managing breast cancer than we used to be.
“Diagnosis, surgery and radiology are all really important.
“We have more precise diagnosis which means we can treat better because we know exactly what we’re treating.
“There are more specialised breast surgeons who are technically excellent so operations are more minimalist instead of mastectomies for everyone.
“Radiology is much more precise and has fewer side effects, we’ve got much better at using chemotherapies and, of course, we have drugs that we didn’t have back then.
“The big challenge is that it is very common.
“It is amazing that we now cure the majority of women but the small percentage we don’t means there are still thousands of deaths every year in the UK.
“We need more treatments for these women so we can keep it as a chronic disease like high blood pressure or diabetes.”
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Melanie Sturtevant, from the charity Breast Cancer Now, added: “These figures are testament to immense advances but we know our work is far from done.
“The NHS screening programme has reached breaking point and more needs to be done to ensure people living with and beyond breast cancer get the treatment and support they need.”