Last updated: 11/24/2009

The American Cancer Society estimates that approximately 211,300 new cases of breast cancer are diagnosed annually in the United States, and 39,800 women die as a result of the disease. Approximately one in eight women will develop breast cancer at...

some point in her life. The risk of developing breast cancer increases with age: women ages 30–40 have a one in 252 chance, ages 40–50 a one in 68 chance, ages 50–60 a one in 35 chance, and ages 60–70 a one in 27 chance.

In the 1990s, the incidence of breast cancer was higher among Caucasian women (113.1 cases per 100,000 women) than African American women (100.3 per 100,000). The death rate associated with breast cancer, however, was higher among African American women (29.6 per 100,000) than Caucasian women (22.2 per 100,000). Rates were lower among Hispanic women (14.2 per 100,000), American Indian women (12.0), and Asian women (11.2 per 100,000).