Breast cancer prevention

Abstract

Early detection, combined with targeted and more effective therapies, has led to significant reductions in breast cancer-related deaths. Approximately 90 % of women diagnosed with early-stage breast cancer are alive and disease-free 10 years after diagnosis. Despite these successes, breast cancer still affects 1 in 8 women and remains a major cause of morbidity and mortality in women of every race and ethnicity and continues as a major cause of death in women 35–54 years. These facts combined with the increasing rates of breast cancer worldwide with industrial development, especially among previously low-risk regions and low-risk populations, have created new concerns (Minami et al., Int J Cancer 108(6):901–906, 2004; Althuis et al., Int J Epidemiol 34(2):405–412, 2005; Bosetti et al., Ann Oncol 16(3):489–511, 2005; Newman and Vogel, Surg Clin North Am 87(2):307–316, 2007; Jemal, CA Cancer J Clin 61:69–90, 2011). The latter is a particularly worrisome trend for regions, and populations where use of screening and access to advances in treatment remain limited and mortality rates high (Yip and Taib, Future Oncol 8(12):1575–1583, 2012). Given that the worldwide burden of breast cancer is nearly 1.4 million new cases, a quarter of all cancer diagnoses in women with just under half a million lives lost annually to the disease (http://​globocan.​iarc.​fr/​factsheet.​asp), the prevention and early detection of breast cancer remains a major global public health priority.