Research proves that roughly one in every eight American women (13%) will get invasive breast cancer. In 2021, women in the United States are anticipated to be diagnosed with 281,550 new instances of invasive breast cancer and 49,290 new cases of non-invasive (in situ) breast cancer.
From 2013 to 2018, the total mortality rate from breast cancer dropped by 1% each year. These reductions are considered to be due to advancements in therapy and earlier diagnosis through screening.
Breast Cancer Diagnosis And How Body Mass Index Matters
Across the globe many females being a victim of breast cancer where they do not get enough diagnosis or symptoms and hence when they come to know about the ailment it becomes too late. Those women who have higher BMI may be easy victims of this disease as per experts and hence a check on the same can be useful to keep this ailment away.
Despite the fact that mammography decreases breast cancer mortality by 15 to 20%, many cases—roughly 15% of all breast cancers—are diagnosed after a patient gets a negative mammogram and before her next scheduled screening. These are known as “interval cancers,” and they have far-reaching consequences.
Patients who get a cancer diagnosis in the interval have a worse prognosis than those whose tumors are detected during screening. However, according to Anne Marie McCarthy, Ph.D., certain practical gaps in the research have persisted.
One of the largest studies of its sort to date, the one she conducted, identifies many key characteristics that might help us identify and perhaps alter the screening strategy for women who are most likely to be identified with advanced-stage malignancies within the two-year timeframe. The outcomes of the study were recently published in the journal Cancer.
Since 2000, the incidence of breast cancer in the United States has declined after rising for two decades. In only the two years between 2002 and 2003, they fell by 7 percent. The Women’s Health Initiative, big research published in 2002, may have contributed to the decline in the usage of hormone replacement therapy (HRT) among women. According to these findings, HRT may increase the chance of developing breast cancer. Incidence rates have risen by 0.5 percent every year in recent years.
Interval cancers include those that were missed by a patient’s most recent mammography and those that formed during the time between screenings due to their fast development rates. The findings are especially important for women in the latter category because there is so much ambiguity regarding when and how often to screen.
Dr. McCarthy’s research found that body mass index (BMI) is particularly relevant, especially in the year between screenings, even though breast density—a feature that might help cancers hide from mammography—has received a lot of attention from physicians. Nearly twice as many obese women had advanced cancer in the year following negative mammography as women with normal BMI.
Obese women also had an increased risk of advanced cancer the following year. In addition, they found that women who were overweight or obese had a 40 percent greater chance of developing early-stage cancer in the second year.
While breast density is an important risk factor for developing advanced breast cancer in the short term, BMI also plays a role in identifying the women who are most likely to develop aggressive cancer soon after a negative mammogram, according to Dr. McCarthy’s research findings in the journal Cancer.
It’s possible for these high-risk women to opt for a shorter screening interval, or even to opt for an additional breast MRI screening, which can identify smaller and more aggressive tumors than mammography.”
