Breast cancer has been known as the fifth most common cause of death worldwide and the second most common type of cancer following lung cancer. It starts in the cells of the breast. With women all over the world it has become the most common cause of cancer. In the year of 2005 breast cancer caused approximately 502,000 deaths worldwide. The amount of people worldwide getting breast cancer has increased since the seventies. Breast cancer is known to be higher in the western world then it is in third world countries. Women from North America are known to have the highest incidence of this type of cancer.

With women in the United States breast cancer is the most common of cancer types and the second most common type of cancer death. Women that live in the United States have a one in eight chance in their lifetime of developing invasive breast cancer. And women in the United States have a three percent chance of dying from breast cancer. In the year of 2007 breast cancer caused many deaths in the United States averaging about seven percent of all cancer deaths. In the United States death rates for breast cancer have been known to decline in the last few years.

A research study conducted in 2005 showed that breast cancer was still one of the most feared diseases even with heart disease being a more common death among women. With the breast being composed of identical tissues in both men and women, men can also get breast cancer. But with men breast cancer is almost one hundred times less common then it is with women. Men that have breast cancer are considered to have the same survival rate as women. Breast cancer is one of the oldest types of cancer in humans. Many years ago there was thought to be no treatment. When doctors started understanding the circulatory system back in the 17th century they then established a link between lymph nodes and breast cancer in the armpits. This led to greater knowledge of what can be done today for people with breast cancer.