Oncology

Breast cancer

Breast cancer is the most common malignant tumor in women⁽¹⁾. 99% of breast cancers concern women and almost 1 in 8 women develops breast cancer during her lifetime⁽¹⁾.

Even though breast cancer is the deadliest cancer⁽²⁾, detected early, breast cancer heals in 9 out of 10 cases⁽¹⁾. The most frequent breast cancers are adenocarcinomas (in 95% of cases)⁽¹⁾.

In 2018, in France, it is estimated that⁽¹⁾:

• nearly 59,000 new breast cancers have been detected,
• more than 12,100 deaths have been attributed to this cancer.

Thus, breast cancer is the primary cause of death in women (14% of female deaths from cancer in 2018)⁽²⁾.
However, over the past 30 years, even though the annual number of new cases of breast cancer in women has increased (+ 1.1% per year on average), the mortality rate has decreased year after year⁽²⁾.

Prostate cancer

In France, prostate cancer is the most common cancer in men. This cancer occurs in about 66% of cases in men aged 65 and over.

Prostate cancer is a malignant tumor developed from prostate cells, the gland of the male reproductive system.
In 90% of cases, prostate cancer is an adenocarcinoma resulting from the progressive malignant transformation of epithelial cells that form the lining of the prostate⁽⁴⁾. The risk of prostate cancer increases with age and it’s mainly a slowly evolving cancer (10 to 15 years)⁽⁴⁾.
This cancer ranks third among cancer deaths in men⁽⁴⁾.

Here are the established risk factors⁽⁴⁾:

• Age. The risk of prostate cancer increases with age. It is rare before 50 years of age. It is around 70 that the number of cases diagnosed is greatest.
• Family history. According to family history, prostate cancer can occur in three forms:
  – the sporadic form which is the non-hereditary form. It’s the most common form;
  – the familial form, when there are at least two cases of prostate cancer in first or second degree relatives. This familial form represents 20% of prostate cancers;
  – the hereditary form, which is defined by the existence of at least 3 cases of prostate cancer in relatives, or of 2 members of the family diagnosed before age 55 (5% of prostate cancers).
• Certain ethnic origins. Men of African origin (especially Afro-Caribbean) have a higher risk of developing prostate cancer than Caucasians; themselves being more at risk than Asians.

In 2015, in metropolitan France, 50,430 new cases of prostate cancer were diagnosed. There has been a relative decrease in the number of cases in recent years⁽⁴⁾.