Facts And Figures
Incidence
- One in nine women will be diagnosed with breast cancer before the age of 85
- Currently 36 women in Australia are diagnosed with breast cancer every day
- Breast cancer is the most common cancer among Australian women, accounting for 28% of all cancer diagnoses in 2006.
- The number of women diagnosed with breast cancer in Australia increased from 5,289 in 1982 to 12,614 in 2006
- By 2015, the number of new breast cancer cases among women is projected to be 22% higher than in 2006, with an estimated 15,409 women expected to be diagnosed with breast cancer
- Breast cancer is the most common cancer experienced by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women.
- Indigenous women were significantly less likely to be diagnosed with breast cancer than non-Indigenous women in 2002-2006 (69 and 103 new cases per 100,000 women respectively)
- The risk of breast cancer increases with age. About 24 per cent of new breast cancer cases diagnosed in 2006 were in women younger than 50 years; 51 percent in women aged 50-69; and 25 per cent in women aged 70 and over
- The age standardised incidence rate has increased from 80.7 in 1982 to 112.4 in 2006
- The highest age-standardised incidence rate occurred in ACT (129.2 cases per 100,000 females), followed by Western Australia (114.9), Tasmania (114.8),Queensland (114.6), South Australia (113.5), New South Wales (113.1), Victoria (111.4) and Northern Territory (83.3)
- The average age of first diagnosis was 60 years for a woman in 2006
- The number of men diagnosed with breast cancer in Australia increased from 62 in 1982 to 102 in 2006
Mortality
- Breast cancer and lung cancer are the two leading causes of cancer-related death in Australian women.
- Lung cancer claimed 65 more lives than breast cancer in 2006
- There were 2,618 female deaths from breast cancer in 2006
- There were 25 male deaths from breast cancer in 2006
- A woman's risk of dying from breast cancer before the age of 85 has been declining, from 1 in 30 risk in 1982 to a 1 in 38 risk in 2006
- The age-standerdised rate of death due to breast cancer among women has afllen from 30.2 deaths per 100,000 females in 1994 to 22.1 deaths per 100,000 females in 2006,a decrease of 27%
- Mortality rates for Indigenous women in Queensland, Western Australia, South Australia and Northern Territory were not significantly different from those of their non-Indigenous counterparts (25 and 23 deaths per 100,000 women, respectively)
- Australia's death rate from breast cancer was significantly lower than the rates for New Zealand, Northern Europe, Western Europe and Western Africa
Survival
- For women, there was an increase in relative survival after diagnosis of breast cancer between 1982-1987 and 2000-2006, five-year relative survival increased from 72.6% to 88.3% respectively
- In 2006 five-year relative survival was 98.2% for women with 0-10 mm tumours, 94.7% for women with 11-15 mm tumours, 93% for women with 16-19 mm tumours, 87.9% for women with 20-29 mm tumours, 73.1% for women with tumours 30mm or greater
- Five-year relative survival was 96.5% for women with negative nodal status, 80.2% for women with positive nodal status in 2006
- Five-year crude survival rates for Indigenous women in Queensland, Western Australia, South Australia and Northern Territory were significantly lower compared with non-Indigenous women (65% vs. 82% respectively) between 2002-06
Prevalence
- It is estimated that in 2006 there were 143,967 women alive who had been diagnosed with breast cancer in the previous 25 years
Local Statistics
- Around 1154 women and 7 men were diagnosed with breast cancer in Western Australia in 2005.
- Around 223 women and 1 man died from the disease in WA in 2005
Sources
- Australian Institute of Health and Wellbeing and the National Breast Cancer Centret
- Breast cancer in Australia: An Overview, 2009
- The Western Australian Cancer Registry
- Last available figures - 2005