Most women diagnosed with early-stage breast cancer can expect to be “long-term survivors,” according to a breakthrough study.
The study was conducted by cancer Research The UK found that the number of women surviving has improved significantly since the 1990s.
Women diagnosed between 2010 and 2015 were 66 percent less likely to die from the disease within five years than women diagnosed in the 1990s, the study found.
Researchers led by the University of Oxford tracked the survival rates of 500,000 British women diagnosed with breast cancer, the most common type of cancer in the UK, between 1993 and 2015.
They primarily studied cases where the disease had not spread beyond the breast, and then analyzed patients five years after diagnosis when they were found to be at highest risk of dying from cancer.
Women diagnosed between 1993 and 1999 had a 14.4 percent chance of dying within five years of their cancer being discovered.
However, for patients diagnosed between 2010 and 2015, this percentage dropped to 4.9%.
For some women, the risk of dying within five years was as low as 0.2%.
The researchers concluded that “most [patients] promising long-term cancer survivors.”
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Experts say some of the improved survival may be due to new treatments, improved radiation therapy, better testing and breast screening, and research to identify different features of breast cancer.
Dr Caroline Taylor, Professor of Population Health Oncology at the University of Oxford and lead author of the paper, said: “In the future, further research may be able to further reduce breast cancer mortality in women diagnosed with early-stage breast cancer.”
Cancer Research UK said the figures were “heartbreaking” and praised the scientific investment that had contributed to “tremendous progress” over the past 20 years.
Doctors will be able to use the large-scale study to provide accurate prognosis for women, the charity said.
However, its chief executive, Michelle Mitchell, said that “the UK still lags behind other countries when it comes to cancer survival”.
She added: “Governments across the UK must show political leadership on cancer by taking action to help diagnose and treat cancer early and ensure the NHS has enough staff and equipment to meet future growing needs.”