U.S. Breast Cancer Deaths Drop Due to New Treatments, Screening
Thanks to improvements in treatments and breast cancer screening , deaths from breast cancer in the United States dropped from 48 deaths per 100,000 women in 1975 to 27 deaths per 100,000 women in 2019, according to a study.
The research was published on Jan. 16, 2024, by the journal JAMA. Read “Analysis of Breast Cancer Mortality in the US — 1975 to 2019.”
Why do the study?
For decades, the rate of people in the U.S. dying from breast cancer has been falling. The researchers did this study because they wanted to know how much breast cancer treatments and screening contributed to the decline.
About the study
A group of researchers from the U.S. National Cancer Institute’s Cancer Intervention and Surveillance Modeling Network used four mathematical models to analyze information on clinical trials, new breast cancer treatment approvals, screening, and breast cancer deaths.
More than 2,000 phase III clinical trials studying breast cancer are registered on the ClinicalTrials.gov site. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved 26 metastatic breast cancer treatments and four stage I to stage III breast cancer treatments between 2010 and 2020.
They specifically wanted to know how three factors affected death from breast cancer:
treatments for metastatic breast cancer (cancer that has spread from the breast to another part of the body)
treatments for stage I to stage III breast cancer
breast cancer screening
The researchers found that the combination of screening, stage I to III treatment, and metastatic treatment in 2019 was associated with a 58% reduction in breast cancer deaths compared with interventions in 1975.
The researchers’ analysis found:
stage I to stage III treatments accounted for 47% of the drop in mortality
metastatic treatments accounted for 29% of the drop
mammography screening accounted for 25% of the drop
If breast cancer came back in a part of the body away from the breast, called metastatic recurrence, survival after that diagnosis went up from 1.9 years in 2000 to 3.2 years in 2019. The largest drop in deaths from breast cancer was in people who had estrogen receptor-positive, HER2-positive breast cancer and the smallest drop was seen in people with estrogen receptor-negative, HER2-negative breast cancer.
What this means for you
The results of this study are encouraging – improvements in breast cancer treatments and screening are reducing deaths from the disease. However, not all groups of people are benefiting from these advances equally.
The report “Trends in Cancer Mortality Disparities Between Black and White Individuals in the US, 2000-2020,” published in JAMA Health Forum on Jan. 12, 2024, found that while deaths from any type of cancer have decreased by 33%, there are still disturbing differences between mortality rates between Black and white people for certain types of cancer, including breast cancer.
In 2000, Black women were 31% more likely to die from breast cancer than white women. In 2020, the disparity increased: Black women were 37% more likely to die from breast cancer than white women.
This is unacceptable.
According to Kent Hoskins, MD, the Eileen Lindsay Heidrick Professor in Oncology and professor of medicine at the University of Illinois College of Medicine, both the characteristics of the cancer and social determinants of health equally contribute to this survival disparity. (Social determinants of health include such factors as the neighborhoods in which people live and social support networks, which can impact health.) Dr. Hoskins has studied the disparities in breast cancer survival rates in Black and white women for a number of years. He has recommendations for all women diagnosed with breast cancer to help ensure they receive the best care for their specific situation.
Listen to The Breastcancer.org Podcast episode featuring Dr. Hoskins discussing his health disparity research.
Breast Cancer Survival Differences in Black and White Women
Mar 16, 2023— Last updated on June 1, 2025 at 2:29 PM