Aren breast cancer rates increasing simply because more women are being screened?
It’s true that, for a long time, breast cancer was treated as a secret, often a shameful secret. Then, in the mid-1970s, a number of high profile women announced that they had breast cancer and urged other women to get mammograms. At this point, there was a sharp rise in diagnosed cases but, as mammography became more acceptable and more routine, this “bump” in diagnosed cases smoothed out. In fact, the incidence of breast cancer was rising long before it “came out of the closet” and it continues to rise despite the fact that there has been no surge in mammography in the last few years.
