According to the National Cancer Registry, breast cancer cases would easily double in next 15 years at Ireland. At the official launch of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, Dr Harry Comber, Director of National Cancer Registry Ireland, gave a presentation on the theme, Time Trends 2002-20202.
Approximately 650 women die every year in Ireland because of breast cancer. As per the latest stats from National Cancer Registry Ireland, there were 2,285 new cases of breast cancer in 2004 and this figure is expected to rise to 4700 cases by 2020 thus predicting a 105 percent rise.
Speaking at the launch Dr Patricia Fitzpatrick, epidemiologist with Breast Check, the National Breast Screening Programme and Senior Lecturer, UCD School of Public Health and Population Science, said, “Every day we open a newspaper or turn on the radio and hear about something that seemingly increases our risk of getting breast cancer so Action Breast Cancer correctly took the decision to adopt ‘know your risk’ as the key theme for Breast Cancer Awareness month 2006 to try and separate fact from fiction.
“A risk factor for breast cancer is anything that increases your chance of getting the disease. However, having a risk factor does not necessarily mean you will get breast cancer. Most women who have one or more breast cancer risk factors never develop the disease. Furthermore, many women with breast cancer don’t seem to have any of the risk factors we know about, apart from being female and getting older.â€
