[Care Breast]Breast cancer statistics
[Care Breast] Updated 18th January 2011
[Care Breast][Care Breast]Incidence
[Care Breast]Breast cancer is the most common cancer among Australian women, accounting for 27% of all cancer diagnoses in 2007.1
[Care Breast]The number of women diagnosed with breast cancer in Australia increased from 5291 in 1982 to 12,567 in 2007.1
[Care Breast]By 2015, the number of new breast cancer cases among women is projected to be 22% higher than in 2006, with an estimated 15,409 women expected to be diagnosed with breast cancer.2
[Care Breast]Breast cancer is the most common cancer experienced by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women. Indigenous women were significantly less likely to be diagnosed with breast cancer than non-Indigenous women in 2003-2007 (68 and 102.5 new cases per 100,000 women respectively).1
One in nine women will be diagnosed with breast cancer before the age of 85.1,2
The risk of breast cancer increases with age. About 24 per cent of new breast cancer cases diagnosed in 2007 were in women younger than 50 years; 51 per cent in women aged 50-69; and 25 per cent in women aged 70 and over.3
The age-standardised incidence rate has increased from 80.8 in 1982 to 109.2 in 2007.1
The highest age-standardised incidence rate occurred in ACT (129.2 cases per 100,000 females), followed by Western Australia (114.9), Tasmania (114.8), Queensland (114.6), South Australia (113.5), New South Wales (113.1), Victoria (111.4) and Northern Territory (83.3).2
The average age of first diagnosis in women was 60 years in 2007.1
The number of men diagnosed with breast cancer in Australia increased from 62 in 1982 to 103 in 2007.1
Mortality
Breast cancer and lung cancer are the two leading causes of cancer-related death in Australian women. Lung cancer claimed 231 more lives than breast cancer in 2007.1
There were 2,680 female deaths from breast cancer in 2007.1
There were 26 male deaths from breast cancer in 2007.1
A woman's risk of dying from breast cancer before the age of 85 has been declining, from 1 in 29 risk in 1982 to a 1 in 37 risk in 2007.3
The age-standardised rate of death due to breast cancer among women has fallen from 30.8 deaths per 100,000 females in 1994 to 22.1 deaths per 100,000 females in 2007, a decrease of 27%. 2
Mortality rates for Indigenous women were not significantly different from those of their non-Indigenous counterparts (23.7 and 22.8 deaths per 100,000 women, respectively) between 2003-2007.1
Australia's death rate from breast cancer was significantly lower than the rates for New Zealand, Northern Europe, Western Europe and Western Africa.2
Survival
For women, there was an increase in relative survival after diagnosis of breast cancer between 1982-1987 and 2000-2006, five-year relative survival increased from 72.6% to 88.3% respectively. 2
In 2006 five-year relative survival was 98.2% for women with 0¨C10 mm tumours, 94.7% for women with 11¨C15 mm tumours, 93% for women with 16¨C19 mm tumours, 87.9% for women with 20¨C29 mm tumours, 73.1% for women with tumours 30 mm or greater.2
Five-year relative survival was 96.5% for women with negative nodal status, 80.2% for women with positive nodal status in 2006.2
Five-year crude survival rates for Indigenous women in Queensland, Western Australia, South Australia and Northern Territory were significantly lower compared with non-Indigenous women (65% vs. 82% respectively) between 2002-2006.2
Prevalence
It is estimated that in 2006 there were 143,967 women alive who had been diagnosed with breast cancer in the previous 25 years.2
Burden of disease
Breast cancer was the leading cancer cause of burden of disease for females accounting for 61,100 disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) (40,600 years of life lost due to premature death and 20,500 years of healthy life lost due to disease, disability or injury) in 2010.1
References
1.Australian Institute of Health and Welfare & Australasian Association of Cancer Registries 2010. Cancer in Australia: an overview, 2010. Cancer series no. 60. Cat. no. CAN 56. Canberra: AIHW. 2.Australian Institute of Health and Welfare & National Breast and Ovarian Cancer Centre* 2009. Breast cancer in Australia: an overview, 2009. Cancer series no. 50. Cat. no. CAN 46. Canberra: AIHW.
3.Australian Institute of Health and Welfare 2010. ACIM (Australian Cancer Incidence and Mortality) Books. AIHW: Canberra
