Breast cancer has overtaken lung cancer as the world’s mostly commonly-diagnosed cancer, and is responsible for one in six of all cancer deaths among women. ASCP has joined a new collaborative effort of the World Health Organization (WHO) whose goal is to reduce global breast cancer mortality by 2.5 percent per year until 2040.
Through the Global Breast Cancer Initiative, the WHO, working with other United Nations agencies and partner organizations including ASCP, will provide guidance to governments on how to strengthen systems for diagnosing and treating breast cancer, which in turn is expected to lead to improved capacities to manage other types of cancer.
“Global partners, experts and other organizations will be convened through the Initiative to map existing activities, roadmaps, and establish multisectoral working groups to address health promotion and early detection, timely breast cancer diagnosis, and comprehensive breast cancer treatment and supportive care,” said Dr Ben Anderson, leading the work on the new Initiative at WHO. “The demand for a global approach, that brings together the best expertise on breast cancer control from around the world, is high, as is the excitement about what can be achieved.”
The Initiative will include public education about the symptoms of breast cancer, risk reduction strategies (i.e., reducing obesity, limiting alcohol intake, and encouraging breastfeeding), and reducing the stigma associated with breast health that still exists in some parts of the world.
Timely breast cancer diagnosis should reduce delays between the time a patient first interacts with the health system and the initiation of breast cancer treatment. Although breast tumors do not change in days or weeks, cancer survival rates begin to erode when delays to initiate treatment are greater than three months. Current delays in some settings and among certain vulnerable populations can be more than a year. Basic diagnostic services are feasible in all settings, so long as they are well-organized and lead to timely referral for specialist care.
