Cancer Research of UK has reported that the survival rate of women with breast cancer has increased by 10% compared to patients with breast cancer prior to 10 years. The experts feel that the increase in breast cancer survival is mostly due to world wide awareness for early detection of breast cancer and also due to more effective treatment options available due to increased research in the field of cancer.
Professor Michel Coleman, Epidemiologist, Cancer Research UK has given this interesting review by compiling the data’s which were available between 1971 and 2001. The study shows that women aged between 50 and 69 and diagnosed of early breast cancer has a great survival rate of 72% for 20 years and 80% survival rate for 10 years and this rate is almost 25% more than women who survived for 20 years a decade ago. Those survival rates are predicted to increase by between 13% and 14% to 73% and 64% respectively for women diagnosed during the first few years of this century.Experts View:
Professor Coleman said, "Overall long-term survival for women with breast cancer has improved dramatically over the last 10 years and we are seeing even better survival statistics for women in their fifties and sixties." Professor Tony Howell, Cancer Research UK consultant medical oncologist at the Christie Hospital, Manchester said, "These results are highly encouraging for women who are worried about their cancer coming back and they will also encourage women to go for mammography since women with screen detected cancers fare particularly well."
Dr Richard Sullivan, director of clinical programs at Cancer Research UK said, "This is tremendous news for breast cancer patients who have been recently diagnosed with breast cancer, these data’s are very encouraging as this is the first time we have been able to predict such a huge improvement in long-term survival figures and these review results implies that Women diagnosed today have a much brighter future than those who faced breast cancer a generation ago”.
Dr Sarah Rawlings, head of policy at Breakthrough Breast Cancer said, "This is great news for anyone whose life has been affected by a breast cancer diagnosis as early detection, better awareness and improved breast cancer treatments are all to thank for these dramatic improvements and if we want to improve these survival rates even further then rapid access to diagnosis and treatment are key but ultimately what we would really like to see is breast cancer becoming a preventable disease."
