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Statistics for Metastatic Breast Cancer

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We suggest you read STATISTICS - WHAT THEY REALLY MEAN TO YOU!!! by clicking on the link for a clearer understanding of statistics as they relate to you.
Keep in mind
  1. Statistics can be frightening… and some statistics may not even apply to you and your specific type of cancer and your particular response to treatment.
  2. Many statistics represent an average number. Not everyone falls into that average.
  3. You are a statistic of one.
Statistics
About 155,00 women are living with metastatic breast cancer in the United States and this is projected to rise to 162,000 by 2011 according to Dr. William Gradishar, Director of Breast Oncology at the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University.  source: Reach MD interview 2010
In developed countries, nearly 30 % of women with early stage breast cancer will eventually develop metastatic breast cancer.
(O’Shaughnessy J. Extending Survival With Chemotherapy in Metastatic Breast Cancer The Oncologist.2005;10 (suppl 3): 20-9)
Dr. William Gradishar of Northwestern University : “Breast cancer can become metastatic in roughly 30% of patients…” at 1:30 mark in interview (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UoUftDNl4fo)  11/2009
Quote from The Oncologist Journal  “Prognostic and Predictive Factors in Early-Stage Breast Cancer” (May 2004) “The poor outcome with the Halstedian approach, as well               as the observation that 20%–30% of node-negative patients ultimately develop metastatic disease, led to the currently held               micrometastatic paradigm. This paradigm asserts that many patients with early-stage disease have distant micrometastatic disease               present at the time of diagnosis, putting them at risk for the later development of overt metastatic disease.”
In 2008, almost 49,000 Americans, including 1,990 men, were diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer.
(American Cancer Society - 2008 Statistics)
98 percent of patients with breast cancer that has not spread beyond the breast live five years or more, while only 23 percent of patients whose cancer has spread to other organs survive five years.
(American Cancer Society 2011-2012 Annual report)

During 2004-2008, the median age at the time of breast cancer diagnosis was 61 years. This means that 50% of women who develop breast cancer were 61 years of age or younger at time of diagnosis

Median survival after diagnosis is three years. There has been no statistically significant improvement in the past twenty years.
(American Society of Clinical Oncology [ASCO] Report - 2008)
Despite the decrease in cancer mortality rates since 1990, the actual number of Americans losing their battle with the disease has hovered around 40,000 each year since at least the year 2000.
(American Cancer Society statistics 2000 - 2011)
In 2011, approximately 39,520 women are expected to die from breast cancer. Only lung cancer accounts for more cancer deaths in women. • In 2011, about 2,140 cases of breast cancer are expected to occur among men, accounting for about 1% of all breast cancers. In addition, approximately 450 men will die from breast cancer, bringing the total deaths for 2011 to 39,970. ACS, 2011.
This translates to one death from metastatic breast cancer every 14 minutes.

Metastatic Research Funding: government sources

Danny Welch, PhD, a researcher on metastasis at University of Kansas Cancer Center (previously at University of Alabama) says only a few hundred scientists in the world are trying to understand the process: “It’s responsible for 90 percent of the morbidity and mortality, but gets less than 5 percent of the budget.” click here. see page 4. Quote is based on European studies and appeared originally in the Journal of European Cancer.

 

Metastatic Research Funding by Susan G. Komen Foundation

2012 ad campaign SGK states: “In just the past six years, over $35 million in funding has been awarded to help interrogate why cancer spreads, discover which genes can suppress tumor growth, develop therapeutics to target metastasis and find ways to help the immune system fight metastasis. 

Using the Komen Audited Financial reports MBCN calculated the total Public Support & Revenue raised for the same last 6 year period which totalled: $2,012,000,000 or about $2 Billlion dollars. 36 million for metastatic research as a % of the total revenue raised = 1.7% (round up to 2%) In other words, $200 goes to metastatic research for every $10,000 raised by SGK.


 

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