Utahns make case for and against breast implants; see B22.WASHINGTON (AP) - Decades of breast cancer research have improved detection and treatment options for women but have made no progress in preventing the disease, according to a congressional report.
More women are being diagnosed with breast cancer today - currently one in nine will get it in her lifetime - but death rates from the disease have remained virtually level since the early 1970s."We must conclude that there has been no progress in preventing the disease," Richard L. Linster of the General Accounting Office, which wrote the report, told a congressional subcommittee.
The "critical obstacles" in the fight against breast cancer are the gaps in fundamental knowledge about the disease - principally, what causes it, he said. "Research in this area is a crucial priority."
Most of the important risk factors that have been identified, including age and heredity, cannot be modified, he noted. And the known risk factors account for only 20 percent to 30 percent of all cases, he said.
The report concluded that while "many breast cancer patients live longer and better than their predecessors . . . we do not seem to be winning the war against breast cancer."
Scientists are not sure why incidence of the disease is rising: 88 in 100,000 women in 1973 compared with 110 per 100,000 in 1988, the latest year for which figures are available.
"Some of the increase is apparently due to better diagnostic measures; we're finding it faster and at an earlier and more treatable stage," said Dr. Bernadine Healy, director of the National Institutes of Health.
"Yet, some of the increase mystifies us," she told the House Government Operations subcommittee on human resources.
An estimated 175,000 American women will be diagnosed with breast cancer this year, while 44,500 are expected to die from the disease.
Mortality rates from breast cancer have remained relatively constant: 26 deaths per 100,000 women in 1973 and 27 per 100,000 in 1988, the report said.