Cancer Research UK : Breast Cancer Key Facts

Breast Cancer Key Facts

This page presents key breast cancer incidence, survival and mortality statistics, and the main risk factors for breast cancer. You can download a PDF of the breast cancer key facts page.

Breast cancer is now the most common cancer in the UK
Each year more than 44,000 women are diagnosed with breast cancer, that’s more than 100 women a day
Each year around 300 men are diagnosed with breast cancer
Breast cancer rates have increased by more than 50% over the last twenty years
In the last ten years, breast cancer rates in the UK have increased by 12%
8 in 10 breast cancers are diagnosed in women aged 50 and over
In England the NHS breast screening programme picks up around 14,000 cases of breast cancer each year
The NHS breast screening programme in England saves around 1,400 lives each year
Around 430,000 women are diagnosed with breast cancer in the European Union every year
Worldwide, more than a million women are diagnosed with breast cancer every year
The highest rates of breast cancer occur in Northern Europe and North America and the lowest rates are in parts of Africa and Asia

More women are surviving breast cancer than ever before
Breast cancer survival rates have been improving for more than twenty years
In the 1970s around 5 out of 10 breast cancer patients survived beyond five years. Now it's 8 out of 10
Breast cancer survival rates are significantly higher among women from the most affluent areas compared to women living in the most deprived areas
Breast cancer survival rates are better the earlier the cancer is diagnosed
Around 9 out of 10 of women diagnosed with stage I breast cancer survives beyond five years. This drops to around 1 out of 10 diagnosed with stage IV

Each year in the UK more than 12,000 women and around 100 men die from breast cancer
Each year there are around 1,400 deaths from breast cancer in women under 50
More than half of breast cancer deaths are women aged over 70
Since peaking in the late 1980s breast cancer death rates have fallen by a third
In the last ten years death rates for breast cancer have fallen by almost a fifth
Breast cancer is now the second most common cause of death from cancer in women after lung

Women with a mother, sister or daughter diagnosed with breast cancer have an 80% higher risk of being diagnosed with breast cancer themselves
Risk increases with the number of first-degree relatives diagnosed with breast cancer, but even so, eight out of nine breast cancers occur in women without a family history of breast cancer
Obesity increases risk of postmenopausal breast cancer by up to 30%
Women using hormone replacement therapy (HRT) for five years or longer have a 35% increased risk of breast cancer
Use of hormone replacement therapy causes approximately 2,000 cases of breast cancer in the UK each year
The risk of breast cancer in current users of oral contraceptives is increased by around a quarter
Drinking as little as one pint of beer or one glass of wine a day increases risk of breast cancer by more than 7%
A more active lifestyle reduces breast cancer risk

Why not browse through our other breast cancer sections...