Estimated risk for a woman to become a breast cancer statistic during her lifetime, applies to the United States as a group. Breast cancer statistic estimations do not indicate the risk for any individual woman because of women’s individual differences in family history, age, race and ethnicity, reproductive history, as well as other factors. The estimated lifetime risk for a woman to become a breast cancer statistic has risen gradually over the several previous decades, yet, however, this year the breast cancer statistic has declined slightly.

The National Cancer Institutes’ (also called the NCI) Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results Program (also known as SEER) has published a document titled the SEER Cancer Statistics Review 1975-1003 and the report estimates that based on current rates of breast cancer, statistic estimations are that twelve point seven percent of women born in the United States today will develop breast cancer at some point during their lives. That breast cancer statistic estimate is based on breast cancer statistics for the years two thousand one, through two thousand three.


Based on this breast cancer statistic estimate, it is hypothesized that if the current rate of breast cancer stays level, that women born now have an average risk of 12.7 percent (which may also more easily be expressed as “1 in 8") chance of being diagnosed with breast cancer at some point during their lives. Conversely, the chance that a woman will never become a breast cancer statistic is a chance of 7 out of every 8, (or eighty-seven point three percent).

During the Seventies, the lifetime risk of a woman becoming a breast cancer statistic in the United States was a little less than 1 in 10, or ten percent. The overall estimated lifetime risk of becoming a breast cancer statistic has been rising in a gradual fashion since the Seventies, until this year, when the estimated risk for women born in the United States slightly decreased.

Breast Cancer Statistic Estimations over the last five years, as reported by SEER’s, show the following estimations of lifetime risks:
1997 through 1999, 13.4 percent, or 1 in 7.45
1998 through 2000, 13.5 percent, or 1 in 7.40
1999 through 2001, 13. 4 percent, or 1 in 7.47
2000 through 2002, 13.2. percent, or 1 in 7.56
2001 through 2003, 12.7 percent, or 1 in 7.87

The SEER breast cancer statistic analysts expect some degree of variability from year to year, and slight changes, such as the change reported this year, may be explained by a variety of factors that may include changes in the population levels, changes in the rates of screening, or even variabilities that are random and inherent in the data. The estimated probability of becoming a breast cancer statistic as a breast cancer patient, is generally more informative when looking at specific age groups and specific time periods more than lifetime probabilities. Estimates corresponding to the decade of life are less influences by changes in life expectance and rates of incidence. SEER reports estimate the risk of developing breast cancer during ten-year age intervals, and these calculations factor in the proportion of women who live to each age. That’s to say, SEER breast cancer statistic analysts take into account that not all women live to older ages, when breast cancer risk becomes it’s greatest.