The reduction is attributed to improvements to how breast cancer is identified and treated. The Stanford team credited 49% of the improvement to better treatments for stages 1 to 3 of breast cancer and 25% to improved screening methods.
The authors point to the more than 2,000 breast cancer clinical trials that are registered with ClinicalTrials.gov as evidence of this, adding that these trials have led to the Food and Drug Administration’s approval of 30 new drugs for treating breast cancer between 2010 and 2020.
Mammograms have come a long way since the 1970s.
More than half of women in their 40s have dense breast tissue, as do 40% of women in their 50s and 25% of women 60 and older.
Detecting breast cancer early is key to survival. When caught before it has spread beyond the breast, the disease has a 99% survival rate.
