Advances in treatments for cancer will bring down the number of women dying from breast cancer in the European Union by nine percent this year, researchers said on Wednesday.

Breast cancer is the leading cause of female cancer deaths in the EU, accounting for 15 percent of all cancer deaths.
Although deaths from the disease are declining, the incidence rate has "probably" not gone down, according to the paper published in the journal "Annals of Oncology."
There will be nearly 1.3 million deaths from all forms of cancer in the EU this year, researchers estimate -- 717,398 men and 565,703 women.
"The fact that there will be substantial falls in deaths from breast cancer, not only in middle age, but also in the young, indicates that important advancements in treatment and management are playing a major role in the decline in death rates," said Carlo La Vecchia, a professor at Milan University's faculty of medicine and one of the leaders of the study.
Overall cancer death rates will be 139 per 100,000 men and 85 per 100,000 women in 2012, a fall of 10 and seven percent respectively compared to 2007 data.
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Rates of pancreatic cancer are rising among both men and women, a finding which surprised the study authors given the decline in smoking.
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"Another may be better diagnosis and certification. We do not know the causes of 70 percent of pancreatic cancers, but this rise is certainly not reassuring."
The study was co-authored by cancer specialist Professor Fabio Levi from Lausanne University and used data on EU cancer deaths for the period 1970-2007 to produce a 2012 estimate.
Source-AFP