Abstract
Breast cancer is the most common malignant disease around the world. Regardless of its geographical variation it remains at the top1,2. The rate of breast cancer reported to be 47.8/100,000 in 20203. According to updated data from Globocan in 2020 there were 1,78,388 reported cases of breast cancer in Pakistan, while this rate is expected to rise more in the upcoming years. It is suspected to be doubled in the next ten years while more than 75% rise is suspected by 2040 (Figure I). However, this should be borne in mind that in Pakistan these registered cases are those who received treatment at tertiary care hospitals and later on reported to the World Health Organization (WHO). This has not included a significant number of cases which could not reach to the cancer hospitals; they were rather managed at rural health centers or even not diagnosed at all. These cases will further add a considerable number. In addition, a great majority of these cases were symptomatic as a result of non-existent national breast cancer screening set-up in Pakistan. Thus reported mortality is high as compared to developed countries (ie; 1,17,149 reported breast cancer deaths in Pakistan in 2020). Taken into account of the prediction of the Globocan for breast cancer incidence in Pakistan in 2040, we feared to get averagely 1000 new cases every working day. Given the current health infrastructure and human resource the major concern arises that, are we able to bear this upcoming major burden on our health system? It needs to be taken timely measures from all stakeholders. Currently cancer registry has not been made functional, some institutions are taking individual efforts to make institutional databases in order to keep a record. There is dearth of trained healthcare providers in breast cancer management, resulting in lack of provision of a holistic approach for the treatment. General surgeons, radiologists, pathologists, oncologists and nurses usually deal with breast cancer patients in most hospitals. This has resulted in poor survival outcome. In addition, there is lack of national standardized guidelines for breast cancer management. Thus all the cancer hospitals and tertiary care hospitals and even individual clinicians deal with breast cancer according to their own experience. On the other hand breast cancer is a heterogeneous disease with varying biological characteristics from
one patient to the other4,5.
Binafsha Manzoor Syed. (2020) Rising Trend of Breast Cancer in Pakistan - An Upcoming Major Health Issue, Journal of Liaquat University of Medical and Health Sciences, Volume-19, Issue-4.
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