Health
Most women diagnosed with early breast cancer will survive beyond 5 years, study finds
Death rates from breast cancer have been on a steady decline in recent decades, dropping 43% between 1989 and 2020.
The average risk of dying from breast cancer in the five years after an early diagnosis has fallen from 14% to 5% since the 1990s, according to a recent study from the University of Oxford in Oxford, England, that was published in the British Medical Journal.
For those diagnosed between the years 2010 and 2015, more than six in 10 women had a 3% or less risk of dying within five years.
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Early-stage breast cancer is defined as cancer that hasn’t spread beyond the breast or the axillary lymph nodes, according to the National Cancer Institute.
To uncover the details about the long-term risks of dying from breast cancer after an early diagnosis, researchers analyzed data from the National Cancer Registration and Analysis Service, a U.K. database that includes information on over 300,000 cases of cancer.
The average risk of dying from breast cancer in the five years after an early diagnosis has fallen from 14% to 5% since the 1990s. (iStock)
“We knew that prognosis after a diagnosis of early breast cancer is better now than it was in the past, but we didn’t know how much better,” said lead study author Carolyn Taylor, a consultant clinical oncologist and professor of oncology at the University of Oxford.
“In our study, we were able to show that the five-year risk of dying from breast cancer had reduced during the past 20 years for nearly every group of women we studied,” she told Fox News Digital.
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The researchers analyzed data from over 512,000 women in England who had been diagnosed with early breast cancer between 1993 and 2015 and who were initially treated with surgery, said a press release announcing the findings.
The highest risk of death was seen in the five years following diagnosis, after which it started to decline.
The five-year mortality risk was 14.4% for women diagnosed between 1993 and 1999, and 4.9% for the group diagnosed between 2010 and 2015.
Early detection, as well as screening mammography and improvements in medical treatment, have all led to improvements in overall survival from breast cancer, one doctor noted. (iStock)
The risk varied according to the method of cancer detection, patient age, type of breast cancer, size and type of tumor, and whether the cancer had spread to the lymph nodes.
“Our study is good news for the great majority of women diagnosed with early breast cancer today because their prognosis has improved so much,” the researchers said in the press release.
“Most of them can expect to become long-term cancer survivors.”
“We knew that prognosis after a diagnosis is better now than it was in the past, but we didn’t know how much better.”
Early detection, as well as screening mammography and improvements in medical treatment, have all led to improvements in overall survival, noted Dr. Yvonne Estrin, assistant professor of radiology at the University of Miami, who was not involved in the study.
“The idea is to catch the cancer early, which improves mortality, but also morbidity,” she told Fox News Digital. “That’s why, in the United States, there was a recent change in guidelines, and now screening mammography for average-risk women begins at age 40 (previously 50). This will save many lives.”
The decline in deaths has not been seen in very rare, aggressive and rapidly growing breast cancers, noted Estrin.
“These tend to happen in younger women, those with genetic mutations and Black women,” she told Fox News Digital.
Study had limitations, say researchers
As this study was observational, the researchers stated in the press release that the findings can’t pinpoint what exactly caused the decline in mortality.
The study only included a subset of cancer patients — those who were initially treated with surgery and whose cancer had not spread.
“We are diagnosing a whole lot more breast cancers as we increase screenings.”
Women who had other types of treatments to reduce the size of cancer tumors, those with multiple types of cancer and women whose cancer had already spread were excluded.
Additionally, there was no data available about cancer recurrence.
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Dr. Jennifer Simmons, functional medicine physician and integrative oncologist at Real Health MD in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, found the results of the study to be generally encouraging. Simmons was not involved in the study.
“Based on this study, we can reliably give people survival statistics according to predictive measures that we weren’t able to do before in such a granular way,” a breast cancer expert told Fox News Digital. (iStock)
“Based on this study, we can reliably give people survival statistics according to predictive measures that we weren’t able to do before in such a granular way,” she told Fox News Digital.
She did flag some caveats, however.
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Looking at the number of women diagnosed during each five-year time frame, Simmons pointed out the sharp increase.
Between 2000 and 2015, there was a 240% spike in diagnoses.
“We are diagnosing a whole lot more breast cancers as we increase screenings,” she told Fox News Digital.
There was also a big increase in the detection of “node-negative cancers” — cases in which the disease had not spread to the lymph nodes, Simmons said.
“We’re talking about a doubling of the number of node-negative cancers diagnosed,” she said.
Meanwhile, the node-positive cancers — “the more aggressive cancers, the disease that really needs treatment” — remained relatively stable, Simmons noted.
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“I worry that these detected cancers are not necessarily clinically relevant, and we are kind of falsely elevating our survival rates because we’re saying that people are surviving from breast cancer who would have survived anyway,” she told Fox News Digital.
“I think the reason these numbers look so good is because we’re picking up and treating cancers that didn’t need to be treated,” Simmons went on. “Our screening has almost gotten too sensitive.”
An estimated 43,700 U.S. women are expected to die from breast cancer in 2023, according to statistics from the National Breast Cancer Foundation.
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Ivanka Trump, the daughter of incoming President Donald Trump, has been known to lead an active life.
As the mother of three kids and a lover of outdoor sports, the 43-year-old is always on the move, recently adding jiu-jitsu to her mix of physical activity.
In a recent appearance on The Skinny Confidential Him & Her podcast, Trump shared how her daughter, Arabella, expressed interest in learning self-defense when she was 11.
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“I’m just so in awe of [her],” Trump said about her daughter. “She came to me and said, ‘As a woman, I feel like I need to know how to defend myself, and I don’t have a confidence level yet that I can do that.’”
Ivanka Trump plays with her daughter, Arabella Rose Kushner, in the Rose Garden during a Congressional Picnic on the South Lawn of the White House in June 2017. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)
Trump responded, “At 11 … I was not thinking about how to physically defend myself, and I thought it was the coolest thing.”
After researching self-defense options, Trump enrolled Arabella, now 13, in jiu-jitsu (martial arts) classes with the Valente Brothers in Miami, Florida – and soon the whole family joined in.
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“[Arabella] started asking me to join – I joined,” she said. “Then my two sons wanted to do what their older sister was doing. Then my husband joined … It is good for everyone.”
“It’s almost like a moving meditation.”
Trump, who is now a blue belt in jiu-jitsu, described that she likes how the sport “meshes physical movement.”
“It’s almost like a moving meditation because the movements are so micro,” she said. “It’s like three-dimensional chess.”
“There’s like a real spiritualism to it … The grounding in sort of samurai tradition and culture and wisdom.”
During President Trump’s first term in the White House, Ivanka Trump noted that she had very little focus on fitness, only taking weekly runs with husband Jared Kushner and “chasing the kids around the house.”
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Trump shared that she was “never a gym person,” but always loved sports, which still holds true today.
She said she enjoys skiing, surfing and racquet sports like padel tennis (a hybrid of tennis and squash) and pickle ball, which she described as “fun and social.”
Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner are seen out for a walk with their children on Dec. 10, 2022, in Miami, Florida. (MEGA/GC Images)
‘Elevating awareness’
On the podcast, Trump said she was drawn to jiu-jitsu because it combines physical fitness and philosophy.
It also focuses more on how to extract yourself from a dangerous situation before having to harm someone who’s a threat, she noted.
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“Having these skills makes you less likely to get into a fight, not more likely to,” Trump went on.
“Once you have the confidence that you can sort of move out of a situation, there’s a real focus on elevating awareness.”
Ivanka Trump waves as she arrives at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland for US President Donald Trump’s departure on Jan. 20, 2021. (ALEX EDELMAN/AFP via Getty Images)
In a previous interview with Fox News Digital, Rener Gracie, head instructor of jiu-jitsu at Gracie University in California, stressed that the only truly reliable skills are those that have been “mastered into muscle memory.”
This occurs through extensively practicing self-defense methods like Brazilian jiu-jitsu, which are “leverage-based and don’t rely on you having a physical advantage over the subject,” he noted.
“Having these skills makes you less likely to get into a fight, not more likely to.”
“And by that, I mean strength, speed, power and size — because in almost every case, the attacker is going to target someone who they feel is physically inferior to them.”
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Gracie, whose family created Brazilian jiu-jitsu and the UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship), shared that jiu-jitsu is “highly sought after” because it only takes weeks or months for someone to “develop the core skills that could keep them safe in a violent physical encounter.”
‘Transformative’ strength training
In addition to mastering self-defense skills, Ivanka Trump recently revealed a shift in her fitness routine to include weightlifting and resistance training.
On Instagram, Trump posted a video displaying different exercises with various equipment in the gym, noting in the caption that she used to focus primarily on cardio, yoga and Pilates.
“Since moving to Miami, I have shifted my focus to weightlifting and resistance training, and it has been transformative in helping me build muscle and shift my body composition in ways I hadn’t imagined,” she wrote.
“I believe in a strength training approach built on foundational, time-tested and simple movements – squats, deadlifts, hinges, pushes and pulls. These are the cornerstones of my workout, emphasizing functional strength for life.”
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Trump added that prioritizing form is “essential” to ensure results before adding on weight.
“This ensures a safe and steady progression while maintaining the integrity of each movement,” she continued. “I incorporate mobility work within my sessions to enhance range of motion.”
“I believe in a strength training approach built on foundational, time-tested and simple movements – squats, deadlifts, hinges, pushes and pulls,” Ivanka Trump wrote in an October Instagram post. (Ivanka Trump/Instagram)
“Weightlifting has enhanced not just my strength but my overall athleticism and resilience,” she added.
Trump said she dedicates three to four days a week to strength training, including two solo sessions and two with a personal trainer.
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She also said that increasing her protein intake has also been “critical” to her progress.
“I now consume between 30 and 50 grams of protein a meal,” she said. “It works … I’ve never been stronger!”
Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump are seen arriving at the beachside eatery on May 2, 2024, in Miami Beach, Florida. (MEGA/GC Images)
Trump also still enjoys weekly yoga sessions, spending time outdoors with her children and playing sports with friends, she said.
“I also incorporate a couple of short (10-minute), high-intensity interval training sessions (such as sprints) each week to keep my cardiovascular fitness sharp and dynamic,” she noted.
“This balanced approach has infused new energy into my fitness routine and yielded great results.”
Fox News Digital reached out to Ivanka Trump for comment.
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