“Westernizing” Women's Risks? Breast Cancer in Lower-Income Countries

• Published in: The New England journal of medicine Vol. 358; no. 3; pp. 213 - 216
• Main Author: Porter, Peggy
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Massachusetts Medical Society 17.01.2008
• Subjects: Breast cancer; Breast Neoplasms - epidemiology; Breast Neoplasms - mortality; Developing Countries; Female; Humans; Incidence; Low income groups; Poverty; Prognosis; Risk Factors; Social Change; Womens health; United States > US; North America; China; Africa; Western Europe
• ISSN: 0028-4793; 1533-4406
• DOI: 10.1056/NEJMp0708307

Some 45% of the new cases of breast cancer diagnosed each year, and more than 55% of breast-cancer–related deaths, occur in low- and middle-income countries. Dr. Peggy Porter writes that the most widely cited reason for the global increase in breast cancer is the “Westernization” of the developing world. Dr. Peggy Porter discusses the increasing incidence of breast cancer in lower-income countries and the need for improved data, awareness, screening, and standards of care. Dr. Porter is a cancer biology researcher at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and a professor of pathology at the University of Washington School of Medicine, Seattle. Recent media reports have highlighted the increasing incidence of breast cancer in low- and middle-income countries. Although the disease continues to be most prominent in affluent countries, the risks of both breast cancer and death due to breast cancer are clearly increasing worldwide (see maps). Some 45% of the more than 1 million new cases of breast cancer diagnosed each year, and more than 55% of breast-cancer–related deaths, occur in low- and middle-income countries. 1 Such countries now face the challenge of effectively detecting and treating a disease that previously was considered too uncommon to merit the allocation of precious health . . .