Understanding global variation in breast cancer mortality

Abstract

Breast cancer is an important global health challenge. Among women, it is the most commonly diagnosed cancer and the leading cause of cancer-related mortality. There are significant variations in the incidence and mortality rates globally with highest incidence and lowest mortality observed in more developed countries. The number of women diagnosed with breast cancer is projected to rise to ∼3 million annual cases by 2050 from ∼2 million in 2022, and the number of breast cancer-related deaths is projected to rise to over 1 million by 2050 from ∼660 000 in 2022. The largest increases in both incidence and mortality will be in less developed regions of the world. Over the last 40 years, significant gains have been made in reducing breast cancer mortality in more developed countries, but significant challenges remain in tackling the less favourable mortality rates in less developed countries. In this article, we discuss the global variation in breast cancer mortality rates. We used Sudan to present a case study of the devastating impact of conflict on cancer care.

Keywords: breast cancer; cancer care; conflict; global health; mortality.

Figure 1.

Age standardized rate (world) per 100 000 for breast cancer mortality in women in 2022. © International Agency for Research on https://gco.iarc.who.int/today. Data version: Globocan 2022 (version 1.1)—February 08, 2024. Downloaded March 2025.

Figure 2.

Fall in breast cancer mortality rates in the United Kingdom and United States in people aged 35–69 years (1950-2022). The age-standardized mortality rate is a mean of annual rates in the 7 component 5-year age groups (ages 35-39, 40-44, 45-49, 50-54, 55-59, 60-64, and 65-69 years). Data are from the WHO Mortality Database and UN World Population Prospects 2022 revision. Graph reproduced with permission from the Early Breast Cancer Trialists’ Collaborative Group (Hongchao Pan).