Fighting breast cancer in low-and-middle-income countries – What must we do to get every woman screened on regular basis?

• DOI: 10.1016/j.sciaf.2023.e01848
• Publication Date: 2023-08-06T12:25:14Z
• Authors: Eric Naab Manson; Daniel Gyingiri A...
• Keywords: 03 medical and health sciences; Breast cancer; 0302 clinical medicine; Science; Q; Clinical self-examination; Low-and-middle-income countries; Breast cancer screening; Breast self-examination

Background and Purpose: Currently, the incidence of female breast cancer has surpassed all other cancers globally. In low-and-middle-income countries (LMICs), breast cancer incidence is relatively lower than it is in high-income countries (HICs). However, breast cancer mortality in LMICs is higher compared to HICs. This may be attributed to a lack of screening programs for early detection and education programs on breast health awareness, population-based breast cancer registry data, and no/limited breast diagnostic imaging services. This paper presents a brief overview of the current breast cancer burden, challenges faced by LMICs, and future directions on risk reduction and control. Materials and Methods: Based on the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews from PubMed, Science Direct, Google Scholar, and Scopus, a systematic review of the literature was carried out using the keywords breast cancer burden, low-and middle-income countries, breast examination, and breast cancer screening in the English language. Results: The incidence of breast cancer deaths in LMICs continues to be on the rise at a faster rate as compared to that in HICs. The difficulties confronted by LMICs in the management, control, and prevention of the disease are mainly due to a lack of strategies for early detection of the disease and insufficient population-based breast cancer registry data. Conclusion: Breast cancer control and preventive initiatives in LMICs should focus on tailoring effective and affordable solutions to address each sub-region problem. Breast awareness advocacy programs, acquisition, and deployment of uninterruptible mobile imaging equipment for screening are highly needed to enhance the quality of population-based studies and increase accessibility to breast cancer research data.