The breast cancer mortality rate in the U.S. decreased by about 2% annually from 2001 to 2004, according to an American Cancer Society report released Tuesday, Reuters reports.

The report -- titled "Breast Cancer Facts & Figures, 2007-2008" -- found breast cancer diagnoses decreased by 3.7% annually on average during the study period in part because fewer women were taking hormone replacement therapy and fewer women were receiving mammograms (Reuters, 9/25). In 2002, results were released from the Women's Health Initiative study showing that HRT appeared to increase the risk of breast cancer and other health problems. Prescriptions for HRT declined by at least 38% in 2003 and by an additional 20% in 2004 (Kaiser Daily Women's Health Policy Report, 4/20). According to a report published in the Jan. 26 edition of CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, the percentage of U.S. women ages 40 and older who reported receiving a mammogram declined from 76.4% in 2000 to 74.6% in 2005 (Kaiser Daily Women's Health Policy Report, 1/26).

Among women older than age 50, breast cancer diagnoses decreased by about 4.8% annually since 2001, the report found. However, breast cancer rates remained stable among black women and women younger than age 50. About 2.4 million U.S. women who were alive in 2004 had a history of breast cancer, according to the report.

Harmon Eyre, chief medical officer of ACS, in a statement said that the report shows that "a woman today has a lower chance of dying from breast cancer than she's had in decades." The ACS estimates that there will be about 180,510 new breast cancer diagnoses in 2007 and that 40,910 men and women will die of the disease, Reuters reports (Reuters, 9/25).

The report is available online.