Breast cancer affects more than 217,000 women in the United States, and 275,000 women in the European Union each year. These numbers translate roughly into 5/100 as the average risk for a woman to develop breast cancer.

Breast cancer is a serious but treatable disease when early detection is coupled with accurate diagnosis. The most common method of breast cancer detection is screening mammogram, a form of X-ray imaging of the breast.  Detectable breast lumps range in size from 1 to 5 cm in diameter and are divided into three groups:

• benign tumors;
• pre-cancerous growth (ductal or lobular carcinomas in situ; Stage 0) and;
• invasive carcinomas including metastasis (stages I-IV). 

Interestingly, 8 out of 10 lumps in the breast are diagnosed as benign; however not all benign breast lumps are the same.  Women with benign lumps are 60% more likely to develop breast cancer. Accurate and objective molecular diagnostic methods will lead to a more certain assessment and safer future.