15 Jun 2023 • Most women diagnosed with early stage breast cancer today can expect to become long term cancer survivors, finds a study published by The BMJ on Tuesday. For some women the risk of death within five years is as low as 0.2%, according to the large-scale research. The proportion of women who survive the disease has improved substantially since the 1990s, experts found. Cancer Research UK said the figures were “heart-warming” and will come as reassuring news to women with breast cancer.

Researchers included all 512,447 women registered in England with early breast cancer (i.e. cancer confined to the breast and possibly the axillary lymph nodes) as their first cancer from January 1993 to December 2015, and who were treated initially with surgery.

The findings show that the average risk of dying from breast cancer in the five years after a diagnosis has fallen from 14% to 5% since the 1990s. For those diagnosed during 2010-15, more than six in 10 women had a five year risk of 3% or less. The researchers say their findings can be used to reassure most women treated for early breast cancer that they are likely to become long term cancer survivors.

The researchers acknowledge that these observational findings can’t determine the specific causes of these reductions in mortality and point to several other limitations. For example, data on cancer recurrence were not available. The study focused on women who were initially treated with surgery. It did not include women who received treatment to reduce the size of their cancer before surgery, women whose cancer had already spread, or women diagnosed with more than one cancer.

Source: BMJ | Read full story