Breast cancer is the most common cancer among Canadian women.

Breast cancer incidence is the number of new cases diagnosed in a population over a specific time period.

• In 2009, an estimated 22,700 women in Canada will be diagnosed with breast cancer. On average, that is about 437 women diagnosed every week.
  
  
• In 2009, an estimated 180 men in Canada will be diagnosed with breast cancer. Men with breast cancer make up a little less than 1% of all cases.
  
  
• In 2009, an estimated 5,400 women and 50 men will die from breast cancer in Canada.

Breast cancer prevalence is the number of people in a population living with breast cancer at a specific point in time.

• Among women alive on January 1, 2005 in Canada, 148,542 had been diagnosed with breast cancer in the previous 10 years.

One in nine (11%) Canadian women is expected to develop breast cancer during her lifetime (this means by age 90).

Only one in every 28 Canadian women will die from breast cancer. This means that about two-thirds of the women diagnosed with breast cancer in Canada will live through it.

There is more cause to be optimistic. Since 1999, the incidence of breast cancer in Canada has stabilized. Since 1986, the breast cancer death rate has fallen by more than 30% and is currently the lowest it has been since 1950. In women aged 20-39, breast cancer incidence and death rates have declined since 1969.

The significant improvement in survival rates for women with breast cancer since the mid-1980s is likely a result of improvements in screening and advances in treatment. At present, the five-year relative survival rate for breast cancer in Canada is 87%, which means that women diagnosed with breast cancer have an 87% likelihood of living for 5 years after their diagnosis.