For the first 8 weeks of treatment, I have chemo every other week. This is my off week and it is wonderful. I feel perfectly normal and I cannot express how wonderful that is. My hope is that my next three off weeks are like this. Oh and I still have hair (although I was told 2-3 weeks after my first treatment it will start to fall out so that is next week).
As more and more people find out I have cancer, I have started hearing so many stories about their fight with breast cancer or a family or friend who fought it. These stories are inspiring and sometimes heart breaking. That started to make me wonder how many people are actually fighting breast cancer since everyone seems to know someone who has had it.
Breastcancer.org has a wonderful site with recent data. I personally find it horrifying how common breast cancer is. Below are some of the stats I found interesting and semi related to me.
Breast Cancer Statistics
About 1 in 8 U.S. women (about 12%) will develop invasive breast cancer over the course of her lifetime. No wonder everyone knows someone impacted by breast cancer.
About 41,760 women in the U.S. are expected to die in 2019 from breast cancer, though death rates have been decreasing since 1989. Women under 50 have experienced larger decreases. These decreases are thought to be the result of treatment advances, earlier detection through screening, and increased awareness. I refuse to join that value, but I was shocked to see that many die each year from breast cancer.
For women in the U.S., breast cancer death rates are higher than those for any other cancer, besides lung cancer. I refuse to join this statistic.
Besides skin cancer, breast cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer among American women. In 2019, it’s estimated that about 30% of newly diagnosed cancers in women will be breast cancers. And here I always thought I would get skin cancer.
As of January 2019, there are more than 3.1 million women with a history of breast cancer in the U.S. This includes women currently being treated and women who have finished treatment. DANG!
About 85% of breast cancers occur in women who have no family history of breast cancer. These occur due to genetic mutations that happen as a result of the aging process and life in general, rather than inherited mutations. Oh the big news I received this week is my genetic test came back negative so I am one of the 85% that got sporadic breast cancer and it was not passed to me by my paternal grandma.