SCREENING LEADS TO DECREASED MORTALITY
Breast cancer incidence rates between 1940 and 1982
increased by 1% each year. This rate jumped to 4% between 1982 and 1987. Interestingly, as incidence was on the rise, there was a decrease in the size of the tumor and the stage of disease at diagnosis.
2 During the 1990s, the incidence of breast cancer in women age 50 and younger decreased (the rates for women age 65 or older remain unchanged), and breast cancer mortality rates in all women decreased by 1.7% annually between 1990 and 1995.
3 Yet, the occurrence of in situ breast cancer has increased considerably