--- title: U.S. Breast Cancer Deaths Have Fallen Dramatically description: The 34% decline in deaths between 1990 and 2011 represents more than 200,000 lives saved canonical: https://time.com/3694919/breast-cancer-deaths-decline-us/ author: Rishi Iyengar article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-02-04T07:37:22.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T04:07:57.179Z article:section: Health og:title: U.S. Breast Cancer Deaths Are Falling Sharply og:description: The 34% decline over 20 years represents about 200,000 lives saved. og:url: https://time.com/3694919/breast-cancer-deaths-decline-us/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte07190b58c61ce97/69877d8d428a9e8d8acc6f4a/183579195.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 4288 og:image:height: 2412 og:image:alt: 183579195 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: U.S. Breast Cancer Deaths Are Falling Sharply twitter:description: The 34% decline over 20 years represents about 200,000 lives saved. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte07190b58c61ce97/69877d8d428a9e8d8acc6f4a/183579195.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # U.S. Breast Cancer Deaths Fell Dramatically in the Past 20 Years > Sponsored content. 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Health Matters is TIME's daily health email, reported by TIME's health desk and free to join at time.com/newsletters. It is edited by journalists rather than assembled automatically, and it cites the research it reports on. #### Is Health Matters free? Yes. Health Matters is a free daily newsletter from TIME, available at time.com/newsletters. #### Who reads TIME's Health Matters newsletter? Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators. by [Rishi Iyengar](https://time.com/author/rishi-iyengar/) ## Rishi Iyengar Feb 4, 2015 7:37 AM UTC  Pink Breast Cancer Awareness Ribbon Pink Breast Cancer Awareness Ribbon Getty Images by [Rishi Iyengar](https://time.com/author/rishi-iyengar/) ## Rishi Iyengar Feb 4, 2015 7:37 AM UTC The past 20 years have seen a sharp drop in the number of deaths from breast cancer in the U.S., the latest government statistics indicate. The number of deaths fell from 33 to 22 per 100,000 women between 1990 and 2011, _USA Today_ reports. This decline — about 34% — represents more than 200,000 lives saved, the American Cancer Society said. Experts say the downward trend, which they estimate has continued in the past four years as well, can be attributed to better treatment, rising awareness and more frequent checkups. \[[_USA Today_](http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2015/02/03/breast-cancer-death-rates-down/22744441/)\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3694919/breast-cancer-deaths-decline-us/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3694919/breast-cancer-deaths-decline-us/"},"headline":"U.S. Breast Cancer Deaths Fell Dramatically in the Past 20 Years","datePublished":"2015-02-04T07:37:22.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T04:07:57.179Z","description":"The 34% decline in deaths represents more than 200,000 lives saved","url":"https://time.com/3694919/breast-cancer-deaths-decline-us/","keywords":["diseases","Breast Cancer","deaths"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte07190b58c61ce97/69877d8d428a9e8d8acc6f4a/183579195.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Rishi Iyengar","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/rishi-iyengar/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte07190b58c61ce97/69877d8d428a9e8d8acc6f4a/183579195.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"183579195","caption":"183579195","creditText":"Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/diseases/","name":"diseases"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3694919/breast-cancer-deaths-decline-us/","name":"U.S. Breast Cancer Deaths Fell Dramatically in the Past 20 Years"}}]}] ```