Breast Cancer: The Big Picture

The statistics sound like a bad movie plot. By the time a given group of women is 85
years old, one in eight of them will have breast cancer. The older you get, the more
likely it will be you. Fortunately, however, what used to be a doomsday diagnosis is
today not nearly as serious. Not that breast cancer isn’t
serious. It is. Not that breast cancer can’t be fatal. It can.
In fact, 43,000 women died last year from breast cancer.
That’s more deaths in a single year than the total U.S.
Army and Marine casualties in the extended war in
Southeast Asia.
This year, doctors will diagnose another 175,000 to
185,000 American women with breast cancer. That’s
equal to the entire population of a fair-sized city. An-
other 30,000 will be diagnosed with a pre-cancerous
condition that, if ignored, almost always turns into
breast cancer. The good news, however, is that with
early detection and routine treatment, most women
go on to lead long, happy, healthy lives.
I’ve never ever heard a woman out there say, “Oh, yeah,
I’ll be the one in eight. I’ll be the one to get breast can-
cer.” We all assume bad things happen to other people.
Breast cancer will never threaten our lives or reduce our
families to tears. So when it happens, it’s a terrible
shock. Big time. With aftershocks and shock waves.