Breast Cancer: Still D Pending Issue where Much Effort is Needed

摘要

As Dr Russo and Dr Federico mentioned in their Editorial of this issue, breast cancer is the most common malignant tumor namong women with approximately one million new cases per year worldwide. Disparities on the incidence of breast cancer namong the rich and poor countries are still not fully understood. As Dr Awadelkarim and colleagues mentioned in their article, nbreast cancer incidence is lower in middle and low income countries, however, the majority of patients in Sub-Saharan ncountries present with locally advanced and metastatic disease. This lower incidence means that screening programs aimed at nearly detection in asymptomatic women would have a lower yield—i.e., substantially more women would need to be examined nto find a true case of breast cancer [1]. Because the average age of breast cancer is generally lower in low-and-middle income ncountries (LMCs), it has been suggested that breast-cancer screening programs begin at an earlier age in these settings. nHowever, the younger average age of breast cancer is mainly driven by the age distribution of the population, and the fact thatnthere are fewer older women with breast cancer, rather than by higher age-specific incidence rates in younger women [1].