Positive Health Online

Breast cancer remains, for most women, one of the most feared and deadly diagnoses, and rightly so, in light of the latest figures published by the Office for National Statistics.

Breast Cancer has the highest incidence figures of all cancers, afflicting more than 30,000 women annually in the UK and over the past 20 years, breast cancer incidence has increased from just over 62 to almost 100 per 100,000 women. Furthermore, survival figures make even more grim reading.

Although close to 90% of women survive one year, that figure drops dramatically to only about 60% after five years, averaged for age and stage of cancer diagnosis. When looked at according to how far the cancer has spread, the statistics are much worse. Although close to 90% of women with Stage I (localised) breast cancer survive five years, just over 20% of women with Stage IV (metastasised) breast cancer survive five years.

These are from figures published by the Office for National Statistics, yet we don't usually get to read about this in the media. Rather, we tend to be bombarded or bamboozled by sensationalist tales about the latest miracle gene or drug trial which might show some promise in the future.

In this multi-authored feature in Positive Health, we present the sobering facts about Breast Cancer, discuss conventional, complementary and futuristic treatments and describe the alarming facts about the environmental connection. Finally we present a comprehensive proposal for research which would include a whole range of treatment modalities not presently even considered by conventional medicine.

This is a prelimin to the many features articles on cancer in issue 33 of Positive Health magazine.