Breast cancer mortality falls in Netherlands

Breast cancer mortality in the Netherlands has fallen by a fifth over the past decade due to better treatment and early detection, Statistics Netherlands said. In the first six months of this year, 1,600 women died from breast cancer, 5 percent down from a year earlier, the national statistical agency said. Ten years ago, breast cancer accounted for more than one quarter of female cancer deaths, whereas lung cancer accounted for one tenth. In the first half of 2007, however, lung and breast cancer both accounted for approximately 18 percent of all female cancer deaths, the agency said. The risk of dying from breast cancer has dropped since the mid-1990s, partly due to improved treatment and early diagnoses of breast cancer by screening. Half of all women over 30 have their breasts checked at least once every two years, according to the Dutch broadcaster NOS. The average age for women to die from breast cancer has risen. In the first half of this year, women who died of breast cancer were on average 69 years old, up from the average age of 66 in 1980.