October marks a time in which some Americans are reminded of the devastating effects of breast cancer; for many others affected by the disease, however, every month is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. According to U.S. Breast Cancer Statistics, around one in eight women (12%) will develop invasive breast cancer at some point in her life. A man’s lifetime risk is less severe—about one in 1,000—but still significant. Though rates are going down, it’s still the second most lethal cancer in the country, after lung cancer.
To help visualize the effect of the disease on Americans, HealthGrove took a look at incidence and mortality rate of breast cancer per 100,000 people.
Over the past 30-or-so years, the incidence of breast cancer has steadily gone up and then plateaued starting in the early 2000s. Today, it remains at about 129 per 100K people. While breast cancer took 21 lives for every 100K people in 2012, mortality has actually gone down since the turn of the millennium. Some attribute this change to a decreased use of hormone replacement therapy (HRT) by women, after a 2002 study revealed its risks.
Others hypothesize that increased awareness has caused women to check themselves regularly. So though more cases are reported, they are caught earlier and can therefore have a higher chance of being successfully treated.
In comparing the rates by state, it appears that if there is a correlation between incidence and mortality, it’s weak. Some of the states that see the highest incidence breast cancer, like Washington, Massachusetts, and Vermont, actually see fairly low mortality rates in comparison. The Southern region of the country sees the most fatalities caused by the disease.
The highest incidence rates of breast cancer occur in South Dakota (141 per 100K), and many states in the Northeast, such as Rhode Island (138 per 100K) and Massachusetts (136 per 100K people). The lowest incidence rate was reported in Arizona (107 per 100K).
Mortality rate is highest in Mississippi (25 per 100K) and Louisiana (24 per 100K). It’s lowest in Wyoming (15.5 per 100K) and Idaho (15.8 per 100K).
Limited access to women’s health clinics, and therefore a lack of regular checkups seems to be partly at fault for high breast cancer mortality in the South. As this map shows, Mississippi has one of the lowest percentages of women over 50 who’ve had a recent mammogram (70.9%). Prevention starts with awareness—it isn’t enough to only take precautionary measures every time October comes along. Breast Cancer Awareness Month should be year round.