By Thomas H. Maugh II
Los Angeles Times / October 1, 2009

LOS ANGELES - US breast cancer deaths have declined about 2 percent a year since 1990, according to the American Cancer Society.

Its report estimates 192,370 women will be diagnosed with the disease in 2009 and 40,170 will die from it. Only lung cancer accounts for more cancer deaths in women.

Death rates in black women have started to fall at the same rate as those for Caucasians, but remain 40 percent higher.

Based on the latest data, survival rates for women with breast cancer are:

• 89 percent at five years after diagnosis.

• 82 percent after 10 years.

•75 percent after 15 years.

The incidence of breast cancer has gone through five distinct phases, according to the report. Between 1975, when the ACS first began collecting data, and 1980, the incidence of new cases was essentially constant. Between 1980 and 1987, it grew by an average of 4 percent per year, largely as a result of the growing use of mammography, which detects tumors earlier than physical examination.

»www.boston.com/news/nation/artic···falling/