The changing global patterns of female breast cancer incidence and mortality

Abstract

Usage Guidelines Please refer to usage guidelines at http://researchonline.lshtm.ac.uk/policies.html or alternatively contact researchonline@lshtm.ac.uk.Available under license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5/ 229Available online http://breast-cancer-research.com/content/6/6/229 IntroductionCancer of the breast in women is a major health burden worldwide. It is the most common cause of cancer among women in both high-resource and low-resource settings, and is responsible for over one million of the estimated 10 million neoplasms diagnosed worldwide each year in both sexes [1]. It is also the primary cause of cancer death among women globally, responsible for about 375,000 deaths in the year 2000 [1].International comparisons of disease rates by area and time of diagnosis can provide important clues to the underlying causes of diseases and the effects of natural or planned interventions, and serve as indicators of the scope for preventive strategies. There is at least a 10-fold variation in breast cancer incidence rates worldwide [2], largely as a consequence of a range of socio-economically correlated differences in the population prevalence of several reproductive, hormonal and nutritional factors. In some high-resource countries, mammographic screening has considerably affected breast cancer diagnosis, registration and mortality.Studies of migrants provided the first solid evidence that environmental (rather than genetic) determinants were responsible for most of the observed international and inter-ethnic differences in breast cancer incidence: comparisons of breast cancer risk in (low-risk) Asian populations migrating to the (high-risk) USA and their offspring revealed major increases in risk between successive generations [3], and increases in risk were observed in populations from European countries with relatively low incidence (Italy and Poland) after migration to Australia, particularly if the migration took place in childhood [4,5].As a consequence of changing exposures to reproductive and nutrition-related determinants over time, women are at increasingly high risk of breast cancer, with incidence rates increasing in most countries and regions of the world in the past few decades. The most rapid rises are seen in developing countries, where breast cancer risk has historically been low relative to industrialised countries. Increasing trends in developing areas are often considered the result of the 'westernisation' of lifestyles, an ill-defined surrogate for changes in factors such as childbearing, dietary habits and exposure to exogenous oestrogen, towards a distribution closer in profile to that of women in industrialised countries.The variations in mortality reflect, in part, variations in incidence (and its determinants), but mortality is also ReviewThe changing global patterns of female breast cancer incidence and mortality AbstractOne in ten of all new cancers diagnosed worldwide each year is a cancer of the female breast, and it is the most common cancer in women in both developing ...

Attitudes of South Asian Women to Breast Health and Breast Cancer Screening: Findings from a Community Based Sample in the United States

“…Breast cancer is the most frequently diagnosed cancer in Asian women (Miller et al, 1996;D'Souza et al, 2013). Although South Asian women in their home countries are reported to have a low incidence of breast cancer, changing global patterns indicate growing Insiya B Poonawalla 1 , Sharad Goyal 2 , Naveen Mehrotra 3 , Marlyn Allicock 4,5 , Bijal A Balasubramanian 1,5 * trends similar to other developed countries (Bray et al, 2004;Althuis et al, 2005;Ghumare and Cunningham, 2007). Migrant studies have clearly shown that as the number of years lived in developed countries such as the US increases, the risk of breast cancer also increases (Kaur, 2000;National Cancer Institute, 2003).…”

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