New Delhi: Breast cancer has overtaken cervical cancer to become the leading cancer in metro cities and is expected to double by 2015, experts said Wednesday.
"Breast cancer has overtaken cervical cancer to become the leading... cancer in Delhi, Bangalore, Mumbai, Chennai, Bhopal, Ahmedabad and Kolkata with the relative proportion ranging from 21.7 per cent to 28.7 per cent," said P.K. Julka, professor of Oncology, All India institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi.
Speaking on the occasion of the Breast Cancer Awareness Month, Julka said though the incidence of breast cancer in India per 100,000 population is significantly less compared to United States, France, Denmark, Sweden, Britain, the Netherlands, Canada, Australia, Switzerland, Italy, Singapore, Brazil and Japan but the mortality is almost 50 per cent of the rate.
One in 22 women
"The lifetime probability of developing breast cancer in India is one in 22 women compared to one in eight in the United States and other developed countries," he said.
In India, the number of new breast cancer cases is about 115,000 per year and this is expected to rise to 250,000 new cases per year by 2015.
Breast cancer is usually treated with surgery and then possibly with chemotherapy or radiation, or both. Targeted therapies for breast cancer focus on proteins that signal cancer cells to grow and divide uncontrollably and have been found useful in the management of the disease.
Each year 10.9 million people suffer from breast cancer worldwide, with 6.7 million succumbing to the disease.
"Breast cancer has overtaken cervical cancer to become the leading... cancer in Delhi, Bangalore, Mumbai, Chennai, Bhopal, Ahmedabad and Kolkata with the relative proportion ranging from 21.7 per cent to 28.7 per cent," said P.K. Julka, professor of Oncology, All India institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi.
Speaking on the occasion of the Breast Cancer Awareness Month, Julka said though the incidence of breast cancer in India per 100,000 population is significantly less compared to United States, France, Denmark, Sweden, Britain, the Netherlands, Canada, Australia, Switzerland, Italy, Singapore, Brazil and Japan but the mortality is almost 50 per cent of the rate.
One in 22 women
"The lifetime probability of developing breast cancer in India is one in 22 women compared to one in eight in the United States and other developed countries," he said.
In India, the number of new breast cancer cases is about 115,000 per year and this is expected to rise to 250,000 new cases per year by 2015.
Breast cancer is usually treated with surgery and then possibly with chemotherapy or radiation, or both. Targeted therapies for breast cancer focus on proteins that signal cancer cells to grow and divide uncontrollably and have been found useful in the management of the disease.
Each year 10.9 million people suffer from breast cancer worldwide, with 6.7 million succumbing to the disease.
