Early breast cancer is invasive cancer that is contained in the breast and may or may not have spread to lymph nodes in the breast or armpit. Some cancer cells may have spread outside the breast and armpit area but cannot be detected.
# In 2006 5-year relative survival was 98.2% for women with 0–10 mm tumours 94.7% for women with 11–15 mm tumours 93% for women with 16–19 mm tumours 87.9% for women with 20–29 mm tumours 73.1% for women with tumours 30mm or greater
# Five-year relative survival was 96.5% for women with negative nodal status 80.2% for women with positive nodal status in 2006 (Five-year relative survival rates describe the percentage of patients with a disease that are alive five years after their disease is diagnosed divided by the percentage of the general population of corresponding sex and age that are alive after five years.)
# One in nine women will be diagnosed with breast cancer before the age of 85
# The risk of breast cancer increases with age. About 24 per cent of new breast cancer cases diagnosed in 2006 were in women younger than 50 years; 51 per cent in women aged 50-69; and 25 per cent in women aged 70 and over
# The average age of first diagnosis was 60 years for a woman in 2006
# The number of men diagnosed with breast cancer in Australia was 102 in 2006
# There were 2680 female deaths and 25 male deaths from breast cancer in Australia in 2007
# A woman’s risk of dying from breast cancer before the age of 85 has been declining from 1 in 29 risk in 1982 to a 1 in 37 risk in 2007 [b](Is this 1 in 37 women in the Australian population or 1 in 37 women diagnosed with breast cancer?)[/b]
# The age-standardised rate of death due to breast cancer among women has fallen from 30.8 deaths per 100000 females in 1994 to 22.1 deaths per 100000 females in 2007 a decrease of 27%
#Breast cancer was the sixth leading cause of burden of disease for females accounting for 60520 DALYs (40080 years of life lost and 20440 years of life lost due to disability) in 2003.