A lot can happen in a year, including changes to your breasts that you can’t see or feel. When you get an annual screening mammogram, however, you’re more likely to find small, potentially cancerous changes — and breast cancer treatment stands a better chance of success. Early detection, which means finding cancer before it causes symptoms, has a major effect on breast cancer survival rates.
Mammography is the only screening method proven to reduce deaths from breast cancer, according to the American College of Radiology. Death rates from breast cancer fell 42% from 1989 to 2021, according to the American Cancer Society, due, in part, to early detection through screening. Meanwhile, the five-year relative survival rate for women with invasive breast cancer — the most common type — that hasn’t spread beyond the breast now stands at 99%. That statistic, perhaps more than any other, illustrates the importance of early detection.
What Do Breast Cancer Survival Rates Mean?
To appreciate early detection’s impact on survival rates for breast cancer, you need to understand what these rates mean and why they’re important.
If you research or are diagnosed with breast cancer, you’ll almost certainly encounter the term “five-year relative survival rate.” Represented as percentages, five-year relative survival rates indicate the likelihood that people sharing the same type and stage of breast cancer will live at least five years after diagnosis compared with similar women in the general population who don’t have cancer.
Take, for example, the five-year relative breast cancer survival rate for women with localized (confined to the breast) disease, which is 99%. This means, on average, that women with this stage and type of breast cancer are 99% as likely as cancer-free women to live at least five years. The five-year relative survival rate is not a guarantee of survival, but an estimate based on previous patients’ experiences.
Data Dive
The National Cancer Institute determines five-year relative breast cancer survival rates among patients in the U.S. using its Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results Program database. The database reports five-year relative survival rates based on the stage of breast cancer, but these stages differ from the numerical ones used to plan treatment. The Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results stages include localized, regional, and distant cancers.
- As we’ve learned, women diagnosed with localized invasive breast cancer have a five-year relative survival rate of 99%.
- For women diagnosed with regional breast cancer, or cancer that has spread to nearby lymph nodes or other tissue, the five-year relative survival rate is 86%.
- A diagnosis of distant breast cancer — cancer also found in other parts of the body, such as bones or organs, carries a five-year relative survival rate of 31%.
Together, the three stages of breast cancer have a five-year relative survival rate of 91%. Triple-negative breast cancer — a fast-growing type of invasive breast cancer in which the cancer cells test negative for estrogen receptors, progesterone receptors, and the protein HER2 — has a combined five-year relative survival rate of 77%. In its localized stage, however, the rate rises to 91%.
Clearly, the earlier breast cancer detection occurs, the better your chance of living at least five years past diagnosis. That’s where an annual screening mammogram comes in.
Mammography Matters: How It Improves Breast Cancer Survival Rates
Changes in the breast can go unnoticed for years — unless you’re able to see what’s going on inside. An annual screening mammogram can reveal extremely small and potentially cancerous changes, such as calcium deposits called microcalcifications, early on. The most advanced form of mammography, 3D digital mammography, is especially sensitive to early breast changes and may be more effective at detecting cancer in dense breast tissue.
What other benefits does an annual screening mammogram provide? It reduces your chances of needing intensive treatment, such as chemotherapy or surgery to remove the breast, and increases your likelihood of beating breast cancer.
Evidence of screening mammography’s ability to boost breast cancer survival continues to mount. In a study of more than half a million women by researchers in Sweden, patients who received screening mammograms saw their 10-year risk of dying from breast cancer decrease by 41%. In 2023, findings by some of the same researchers included survival rates ranging from 82.7% to 86.9% among breast cancer patients who participated in all scheduled screening mammograms in a study population of more than 37,000 patients. The survival rates for those who didn’t get screened at all ranged from 59.1% to 77.6%.
Breast Health for Life
Have trouble remembering to schedule your yearly mammogram? Link it with your birth month. Each year, give yourself the most meaningful gift by staying on top of your breast health with a screening mammogram. The exam takes only around 15 minutes of your time, but the payoff could be immeasurable.
Prioritizing breast health throughout your life can lead to more time to enjoy the activities you love with the people you cherish. The American College of Radiology advises women to start thinking about their breast health in their 20s. By age 25, they should discuss their breast cancer risk with their primary care provider.
If you have an average risk of developing breast cancer, you should start having annual screening mammograms at age 40, according to the National Comprehensive Cancer Network and the American College of Radiology. Are you at higher-than-average risk? Begin having screening mammograms before you turn 40. Your medical provider may also want you to have a breast MRI along with your mammogram.
In addition to having an annual screening mammogram, you can keep an eye out for changes to your breasts by performing a monthly self-exam. Gently feel for lumps, check for discharge from the nipples, and look for changes in breast shape, skin texture, and nipple appearance. Your medical provider may also wish to conduct a similar exam of your breasts, which is known as a clinical breast exam. These exams shouldn’t replace screening mammograms, but they can help you and your provider spot changes that might be worth looking into.
