World Breast Cancer Research Day: 1 in 8 women will be diagnosed with disease

Thirteen percent of U.S. women will develop invasive breast cancer, according to worldbreastcancerresearchday.org, with 85% of the diagnoses occurring in women who have no family history of breast cancer.

August 18 is World Breast Cancer Research Day, designated as such in 2021 with the primary aim to recognize the research to end the disease on a global level. The date — the 18th day of the eighth month — is indicative of the 1 in 8 women who will be diagnosed with the disease.

“This day not only aims to spread awareness about this leading type of cancer in women but also to spread the word about the research being done to screen and detect breast cancer, along with finding long-term solutions to it,” according to latestly.com.

Although women account for the vast majority of breast cancer cases, 530 men are estimated to die from the disease this year.

Here are a few more statistics, provided by World Breast Cancer Research Day:

• 2,701 new cases of invasive breast cancer are expected to be diagnosed in men in 2022.
• 12% of all cancer cases worldwide are diagnosed as breast cancer. Globally, it is the most common type.
• 3.8 million women in the U.S. have a history of breast cancer (as of 1/2022).
• 6% of women in the U.S. are first diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer.
• 30% of newly diagnosed cancers in 2022 in women will be breast cancers.
• 1 in 833 men will be diagnosed with breast cancer in their lifetimes.

“Breast cancer advocacy and research is highlighted significantly in the month of October, but our fight against the disease needs to continue throughout the rest of the year,” World Breast Cancer Research Day wrote on its website.