Why is breast cancer sooo common?

Question

are there any other cancers this common? i googled stats on b.c. and found that

this question:

About 182,460 women in the United States will be found to have invasive breast cancer in 2008. About 40,480 women will die from the disease this year. Right now there are about two and a half million breast cancer survivors in the United States.

over a womens whole life, the ratio is 1 in 8 women will develope breast cancer....

wtf! why is that sooo common!!!!?????

Answer 1

i dont know why but i wish we did have answers.  i have a very large family history of breast cancer...my great grandma (died from it), grandma (also died from it) and mom (4 yr survivor now battling lung cancer) i HOPE someone will find a cure before it is my turn and for the sake of all the women (and men) out there too!!!  

Answer 2

More and more women are beating breast cancer every day. It is not the death sentence it used to be.

Answer 3

Breast cancer is a cancer that starts in the cells of the breast in men and women. Worldwide, breast cancer is the second most common type of cancer after lung cancer (10.4% of all cancer incidence, both sexes counted) and the fifth most common cause of cancer death. Worldwide, breast cancer is by far the most common cancer amongst women, with an incidence rate more than twice that of colorectal cancer and cervical cancer and about three times that of lung cancer. However breast cancer mortality worldwide is just 25% greater than that of lung cancer in women. In 2005, breast cancer caused 502,000 deaths worldwide (7% of cancer deaths; almost 1% of all deaths).The number of cases worldwide has significantly increased since the 1970s, a phenomenon partly blamed on modern lifestyles in the Western world.

The incidence of breast cancer varies greatly around the world, being lower in less-developed countries and greatest in the more-developed countries. In the twelve world regions, the annual age-standardized incidence rates per 100,000 women are as follows: in Eastern Asia, 18; South Central Asia, 22; sub-Saharan Africa, 22; South-Eastern Asia, 26; North Africa and Western Asia, 28; South and Central America, 42; Eastern Europe, 49; Southern Europe, 56; Northern Europe, 73; Oceania, 74; Western Europe, 78; and in North America, 90.

Women in the United States have the highest incidence rates of breast cancer in the world; 141 among white women and 122 among African American women. Among women in the US, breast cancer is the most common cancer and the second-most common cause of cancer death (after lung cancer). Women in the US have a 1 in 8 (12.5%) lifetime chance of developing invasive breast cancer and a 1 in 35 (3%) chance of breast cancer causing their death. In 2007, breast cancer was expected to cause 40,910 deaths in the US (7% of cancer deaths; almost 2% of all deaths).

In the US, both incidence and death rates for breast cancer have been declining in the last few years in Native Americans and Alaskan Natives.Nevertheless, a US study conducted in 2005 by the Society for Women's Health Research indicated that breast cancer remains the most feared disease, even though heart disease is a much more common cause of death among women. Many doctors say that women exaggerate their risk of breast cancer.

Because the breast is composed of identical tissues in males and females, breast cancer also occurs in males.Incidences of breast cancer in men are approximately 100 times less common than in women, but men with breast cancer are considered to have the same statistical survival rates as women.

Answer 4

Breast Cancer may not be more 'common' than other cancers, just that it is more talked about.

Decades ago no-one mentioned cancer - then some brave women started to talk openly about this, and gradually gained a groundswell of sympathy for breast cancer and charities associated with it.

Other cancers don't have such a high profile, so we just think they aren't common, but they are.

Now, with men, no-one talked about prostate cancer, but like Breast cancer it is now OK to mention the name in polite society.

The more we talk and acknowledge these cancers, the more our knowledge will increase, and the nearer we get to eventually developing  a cure for the different types.

Verite R

Answer 5

Lung cancer is now the leading cause of cancer death in women.  They have caught up to the men.  Second for women is breast, men Prostate.  The 1 in 8 is correct per www.cancer.gov.  good resource, also American Cancer society  www.acs.org

Answer 6

That ratio 1 in 8 is inaccurate

Breast cancer is very common.

Its the second leading cancer in women

But 1 in 8 only applies to women over 40.