Women diagnosed with early breast cancer are 66% less likely to die from the disease than they were 20 years ago, and most can expect to become “long-term survivors”, according to the largest study of its kind.
Cancer Research UK, which funded the study, said the figures were “heartwarming” and would come as reassuring news to women with breast cancer. A woman’s risk of death within five years of diagnosis was 14.4% when they were diagnosed between 1993 and 1999. “In the future, further research may be able to reduce the breast cancer death rates for women diagnosed with early breast cancer even more.”
The charity said that meant doctors would be able to use it to provide an accurate prognosis for women. The researchers analysed different characteristics of the disease and found that for more than six in 10 women, the risk of dying within five years risk was lower than 3%. But for 4.6% of women the risk was 20% or higher.