A new study reveals that when it comes to breast cancer, size does matter. The researchers found that the biggest factor in determining whether or not a woman will survive breast cancer is the size of her tumors.
The study was conducted by doctors at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York. They examined records from a federal database which included nine cancer registries and examined approximately 10 percent of the U.S. population.
The study results indicated that over the last 25 years, smaller tumor size accounts for 61 percent of the improvement in the rate of survival among breast cancer patients.
In addition, in patients age 65 and over with early-stage tumors, the decrease in size accounts for almost all of the improvement in the survival rate.
The number of local-stage breast cancers that are detected when they are smaller than one centimeter increased from only 10 percent between 1975-79 to 25 percent between 1995 and 1999.
An increase in the percentage of women over 40 who have had mammograms has also increased in recent years. In 1987, only 29 percent of women over 40 had reported undergoing a mammogram in the past two years. By 2000, that number had increased dramatically to 70 percent. The early detection is a major factor in finding tumors while they are still small and before the cancer spreads to other parts of the body.
Breast cancer remains the most common form of cancer among women in America. In 2005, experts expect 211,240 new cases of breast cancer and 40,400 deaths.
