As a result of scientific investigation of the length of life of persons with cancer, the author concludes that an untreated victim of cancer of the breast has 17.2 per cent of the normal duration of life to accept; a woman operated on under the most favorable conditions has 68.5 per cent, and one operated on under the present unsatisfactory conditions has 30.4 per cent of the normal duration. The advantage secured, therefore, by the woman operated on under the most favorable existing conditions is 51.3 per cent. The author estimates that the annual quota of new cases of cancer of the breast in England and Wales is numbered at at least 5,000, and that if all of these were operated on under the most favorable conditions, more than 30,000 years of life would be gained for this group. In brief, the normal expectation of life of a woman aged
A 1927 study studied this question.