In contrast, figures from the Office of National Statistics showed that 15 years ago unskilled women were more likely to die from the disease.

Experts say professional women are at increased risk because of factors such as having fewer children, later in life.

But they stress that better cancer care is benefiting women from all classes.

Over 40,000 women are diagnosed with breast cancer in the UK each year, with around 13,000 deaths from the disease.

Improved treatments

The ONS statistics show that in 1997 to 1999, women in highest social classes, I and II, were 54% more likely to die from breast cancer than women in the lowest social classes, IV and V.

This is a reversal of the trend in 1986 to 1992, when unskilled women were 13% more likely to die.

The change is due to improvements in cancer care which have benefited women in lower classes more, say cancer experts.

Professional women will have been better placed to take advantage of improvements in care throughout the 1980s and 1990s.

But as they became widely available to women in lower classes, their death rates have fallen, narrowing the gap between the two groups.

Professor Valerie Beral, of Cancer Research UK's Cancer Epidemiology Unit in Oxford, said: "Traditionally, it has always been the case that professional women are at greater risk because of factors like having fewer children, later in life.

"But they were also better placed to take advantage of newer treatments that improved survival in the 1980s and 1990s.

"As a result, the death rates for women in lower social classes were worse until they also began to benefit from the same treatments."