Breast cancer: key points

• Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women in Scotland accounting for 28.0% of all cancers diagnosed, excluding non-melanoma skin cancer.

• Risk of breast cancer increases substantially with age and it is largely determined by lifetime exposure to oestrogens.

• Many of the known risk factors for breast cancer relate to a woman's reproductive history, e.g. early menarche, late first pregnancy, low parity, not breastfeeding and late menopause.

• There were 4,297 new cases of breast cancer diagnosed in 2020 in women in Scotland and incidence is increasing over time.

• Breast cancer is the second most common cause of cancer death in women in Scotland. However, mortality has decreased since the late 1980s. The mortality rate has decreased by 2.8% over the ten years 2011-2020.

• One in eight women in Scotland will develop breast cancer during their lifetime.

• Breast cancer survival has improved substantially over recent years, with 86% of women in Scotland now surviving at least 5 years after their breast cancer diagnosis.

• Breast cancer is more common in affluent areas, but for women diagnosed with breast cancer survival is lower in more deprived areas.

• Breast cancer incidence and mortality is higher in the UK and other western countries than in the rest of the world.

Key statistics (females only):

Notes:
1) Number of female breast cancer survivors at 31 Dec 2020 who had been diagnosed in the previous 20 years per 100,000 female population.

2) 5 year relative survival for patients diagnosed during the period 2003-2017 (age-standardised).