Breast cancer is one of the most common cancers in women worldwide, accounting for approximately greater than 550,000 deaths in 2021. Over 1.5 million women (25% of all women with cancer) are diagnosed with breast cancer every year throughout the world.

Breast cancer is a metastatic cancer and can commonly transfer to distant organs such as the bone, liver, lung and brain, which mainly accounts for its incurability. Early diagnosis of the disease can lead to a good prognosis and a high survival rate. In most cases, the 5-year relative survival rate of breast cancer patients is above 80% due to the timely detection of this disease.

Mammography is a widely used screening approach in the detecting of breast cancer and proved to help reduce the mortality effectively. Other screening methods, such as Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), which is more sensitive than mammography, have also been implemented and studied during the last decade.

There're numerous risk factors such as sex, aging, estrogen, family history, gene mutations and unhealthy lifestyle, which can increase the possibility of developing breast cancer. Most breast cancer occur in women and the number of cases is 100 times higher in women than that in men.

Although the incidence rate of breast cancer in increases year after year, the mortality rate decreases due to the widespread early screenings and advanced medical therapies. Biological therapies have been developed in recent years and proved to be beneficial for breast cancer.

Prevention

Major advances have been made in clinical and theoretical studies of breast cancer current prevention methods including screening, chemoprevention and biological prevention are more direct and effective than those in the past. The mortality of breast cancer has decreased. However, breast cancer is still the first leading cause of cancer death among females aged 20-59 years. The best way to confront the Breast Cancer War is for women to regularly engage in screening.

Screening

Not primary tumours but the tumour metastasis causes over 90% of cancer deaths. However, if breast cancer is diagnosed as a primary tumour or at an early stage of metastasis, the breast tumour could be removed by surgery and the chemotherapy could work effectively. Early detection is the key to breast cancer prevention.

Mammography is an effective screening method to use low energy X-rays to obtain high-resolution images of the breast. The entire testing process only lasts for 20 minutes. Since the first recommendation for breast cancer screening, over 70% of women (aged 50-74 years) have undergone breast cancer screening via mammography every 2 years. However, the reduction in mortality rate was not significant in women aged 40-49 years. These results indicate the importance of mammography screening programs.

Conclusion

Breast cancer is the most frequently diagnosed cancer in women across 140 countries. Approximately 1 in 8 women worldwide have a lifetime risk of developing breast cancer. Breast cancer is also influenced by genetic and environmental factors. Targeted prevention strategies against these risk factors should be taken ahead of time.

Although the incidence rate of breast cancer is high in developed countries, the fact which we can't ignore is that almost half of the breast cancer cases and over half of deaths occur in developing countries.

The 5-year relative survival rates of breast cancer varied widely in developed and developing countries. The rate is over 80% in North American and Japan, but below 40% in Africa countries like Algeria.

Breast cancer is a preventable disease, and there are adequate medical resources available in developed countries, which can protect against this disease, such as annual mammography screening. These may be attributable for the higher survival rate of breast cancer patients in developed countries than that in middle-income or low-income countries.

Considering the financial burden of developing countries, the clinical breast examination is an effective way to diagnose breast cancer in the early stage. Moreover, if women are educated about breast cancer, breast self-examination may be a simple, economical and motivated method to prevent this disease.

People know their own bodies more clearly than any doctors. However, most of the women in developing countries don't realize the importance of breast cancer prevention. Therefore, in these countries, more attention should be focused on breast health promotion ahead of clinical treatment.

In the modern world, many people spend countless hours sitting at tables. People are more engaged in mental work rather than in physical work. However, physically active women have a 25% lower risk of breast cancer on average than women who are less active. Regular physical exercise may be a convenient and inexpensive way to prevent breast cancer in women from both developed and developing countries.

In summary, breast cancer is preventable. Reducing risk factors is the main way to prevent breast cancer. However, there's a long way to go in creating public breast cancer awareness.

MinorityU is acutely aware of the global health challenge of breast cancer confronting all women. Statistically, most of the Breast Cancer support globally regarding research into preventative measures and the development of active therapies and medicines are funded via charitable organisations. Therefore, MinorityU has provided customers the opportunity to donate money from every purchase with MonirityU to selected charities to directly support the war against breast cancer.