Breast cancer survival rates have stalled, Elizabeth Tracey reports

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Improvements in breast cancer detection and treatment have resulted in improved survival, but now those improvements seem to have stalled, a new analysis shows. William Nelson, director of the Kimmel Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins, says two groups of women account for this slowdown.

Nelson: If you look in two groups particularly younger women aged 20 to 39 and this is combining all different race, ethnicities, the breast cancer mortality rates fell about 2.8% per year overall from 1990 to 2010 but are completely flat since 2010, and then if you look at the older women age 75 and older again decreased about 1.3% per year from 1993 to 2013 but then became completely flat.        :30 

Nelson says while the reasons for this are under investigation, some are pointing to reduced screening in both groups of women as a possible factor, since it’s difficult to convince younger women to be screened and older women often cease screening after a certain age. At Johns Hopkins, I’m Elizabeth Tracey.