Wendt Family Breast Cancer Program
Your generosity can extend lives and cure patients
Accoding to the American Cancer Society, Breast cancer is the second leading cause of cancer death in women. It accounts for about 30% (or 1 in 3) of all new female cancers each year. But with your help, St. Joseph’s can offer the best treatments possible to extend lives and cure patients of this dreaded disease.
“We’re finding more breast cancers than ever before, but fewer women are dying of breast cancer today compared with just 15 years ago,” says Albert Wendt, MD, who specializes in breast cancer risk assessment, diagnosis and treatment at St. Joseph’s.
Your donations are needed to ensure that the Wendt Family Breast Cancer Program at St. Joseph’s has the most advanced equipment possible to detect the disease in its earliest stages, when it’s most treatable. Your gift opens the door to breakthroughs in research while expanding the breadth of the program, enabling more patients to receive treatment.
Watch the video below of Dr. Wendt being honored by his colleagues after he and his family make a generous endowment to St. Joseph's breast cancer program.
The American Cancer Society's estimates for breast cancer in the United States
- About 310,720 new cases of invasive breast cancer will be diagnosed in women
- About 56,500 new cases of ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) will be diagnosed
- About 42,250 women will die from breast cancer
Breast cancer mainly occurs in middle-aged and older women. The median age at the time of breast cancer diagnosis is 62. This means half of the women who developed breast cancer are 62 years of age or younger when they are diagnosed. A very small number of women diagnosed with breast cancer are younger than 45.
Lifetime chance of getting breast cancer
Overall, the average risk of a woman in the United States developing breast cancer sometime in her life is about 13%. This means there is a 1 in 8 chance she will develop breast cancer. This also means there is a 7 in 8 chance she will never have the disease.
Trends in breast cancer incidence
In recent years, incidence rates have increased by 0.6% per year. The rise in incidence rates is a little steeper in women younger than 50 (1.0%).
Trends in breast cancer deaths
Breast cancer is the second leading cause of cancer death in women. (Only lung cancer kills more women each year.) The chance that a woman will die from breast cancer is about 1 in 40 (about 2.5%).
Breast cancer death rates have been decreasing steadily since 1989, for an overall decline of 42% through 2021. The decrease in death rates is believed to be the result of finding breast cancer earlier through screening and increased awareness, as well as better treatments. However, the decline has slowed slightly in recent years.