Breast cancer to grow 50 per cent by 2030

The number of breast cancer cases diagnosed in the US in 2030 will double due to several factors, including changing lifestyle and increasing population, according to a new study.
By 2030, there will be 441,000 new breast cancers diagnosed yearly in US women ages 30 to 84, according to the study's estimates. That's up from 283,000 breast cancer cases in 2011, according to a study conducted by National Cancer Institute.
"The reason for the rise in breast cancer cases is because the population is growing, so there will be more cases," said study researcher Philip Rosenberg, a senior investigator in the division of cancer epidemiology and genetics at the NCI.

People are also living longer and cancer risk increases with age. Finally, different generations of women may also have differences in lifestyle factors that could affect the risk of breast cancer - for example, women in today's older generations may have been less likely to have breastfed their children, Rosenberg said.
The researchers predict there will be more breast cancers diagnosed in older women: Breast cancers in women ages 70 to 84 accounted for 24 per cent of all cases in 2011, but will account for 35 per cent of cases in 2030.
In contrast, the proportion of breast cancers in women ages 50 to 69 is expected to decrease from 55 per cent to 44 per cent.

The latest figures serve to highlight those issues.

Recent studies have suggested some increasingly popular practices -- like double mastectomies -- offer no quantifiable health benefits for those battling breast cancer.
"There's certainly concern, especially in the older patients, about over-diagnosis of breast cancer, and that's one of the reasons that screening mammography can become very controversial in older patients," Dr Sharon Giordano, a researcher at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center who wasn't involved in the latest research said.
"We don't want to end up diagnosing and treating a disease that would never cause a problem during the person's natural lifetime," Giordano said.

Researchers said the new numbers are meant to help healthcare providers to prepare for the challenges that lay ahead.