Bay Area breast cancer rates decline

By Lara Moscrip, Bay City News Service

October 11, 2006

A nonprofit cancer research center reported a decline in the occurrences of breast cancer among women of all ethnic backgrounds in the Bay Area since 2000, according to its annual report released today.

Authors of the Northern California Cancer Center's Cancer Incidence and Mortality Report has monitored breast cancer incidence rates among women of the nine Bay Area counties from 1988 to 2003, reporting trends annually.

Deaths from the disease have declined steadily since 1988, according to the report. Marin County had the highest rate of breast cancer occurrence among white women but the rate has decreased from previous years, according to the center's report.

White women living in Marin County had a breast cancer incidence rate of 167 per 100,000 women from the 1999 to 2003 period. The average breast cancer incidence rate for white women Bay Area-wide was 158 per 100,000, according to the report.

The study reported that for black women living in the Bay Area, the average breast cancer incidence rate was 118 per 100,000 women.

According to the study, Hispanic women reported a lower average breast cancer incidence rate for the same 1999 to 2003 period, with an average of 107 incidences per 100,000 women.

The average breast cancer incidence rate for Asian and Pacific Islander women in the Bay Area was reported as 88 per 100,000 women during the same time period.

Scientists at the Northern California Cancer center suggest that the declines in breast cancer diagnoses in Northern California may be due to the declining use of hormone replacement therapies.

Results of the study will be published in an upcoming issue of the Journal of Clinical Oncology.

Breast cancer remains the most frequently occurring cancer in women in the greater Bay Area, according to the center.

According to the Northern California Cancer Center, 66,491 new cases of breast cancer were diagnosed between 1988 and 2003.

The study included data from women living in Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Monterey, San Benito and Santa Cruz Counties.

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