Breast Cancer Cases

Prevalence of Breast Cancer

Breast cancer is the most common female cancer in the United States, the second most common cause of cancer death in women (after lung cancer), and the main cause of death of women between the ages of 45 and 55. Every year, approximately 205,000 American women are diagnosed with breast cancer and more than 40,000 die from this disease.

Because of the prevalence of breast cancer, it is not surprising that the most common medical legal claim against physicians, as reported by the Physician Insurer’s Association of America, arises from a delay in the diagnosis of this cancer. According to various studies cited in the Archives of Internal Medicine, 6% to 16% of women with breast cancer experienced physician caused delay in diagnosis. This suggests that at least 10,000 of the approximately 180,000 women diagnosed as having breast cancer each year experience delay of treatment because of misinterpretation or misapplication of tests by their physicians.¹

¹Archives of Internal Medicine, Vol. 162, p. 1343 (June 24, 2004).