Breast Cancer Mortality Drops 44%, ACS Reports

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Breast cancer death rates overall have dropped 44% since 1989, which equals about 517,900 averted deaths, the latest American Cancer Society Breast Cancer Facts and Figures 2024-2025 report revealed. While death rates have dropped overall, in the last decade (2012 to 2021), breast cancer incidence has increased 1.4% yearly for women under the age of 50 versus women aged 50 and older (0.7%). Breast cancer is the second most common cancer in women in the United States, behind skin cancer.

Inequalities are especially prevalent in communities of color. Breast cancer death rates for American Indian and Alaska Native (AIAN) women have remained unchanged. Although AIAN women have a 10% lower breast cancer incidence rate than White women, they have a 6% higher mortality. Since the year 2000, only 51% of AIAN women aged 40 or older have had a mammogram in the past two years while 68% of White women have had a mammogram in the past two years, according to research published alongside the ACS report in CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians.

Asian American/Pacific Islander (AAPI) women of any age experienced an increased breast cancer diagnosis average of 2.5% per year in women ages 20–49 year's and 2.7% per year in women ages 50 and older, the fastest increase in breast cancer incidence. This is followed by the rates of Hispanic women, who saw a breast cancer increase of 2.4% and 1.6% per year, respectively.

Black women also continue to be disproportionately affected. They have a 38% higher breast cancer mortality rate than White women, as well as a lower survival rate for every cancer stage other than localized disease (58% vs. 68%).

“Women today are a lot less likely to die from breast cancer, but alarming disparities still remain, especially for Asian American, Pacific Islander, Native American and Black women,” said William Dahut, M.D., CSO at the American Cancer Society, in a news release. “These gaps need to be rectified through systematic efforts to ensure access to high-quality screening and treatment for every woman.”

In May 2024, the ACS addressed ongoing inequalities surrounding Black women with breast cancer with the launch of the VOICES of Black Women study . The study aims to enroll 100,000 Black women in the United States ages 25 to 55 who have not been diagnosed with cancer to better understand cancer risk and outcomes. Participants will be followed for at least 30 years.