Miriam Mutebi: Where you live, should not determine if you live
Miriam Mutebi, Assistant Professor in the Department of Surgery at the Aga Khan University Hospital, shared a post by Ming Yang, Senior Editor at Nature Medicine, on LinkedIn, adding:
“Grateful for the opportunity to contribute to this critical work spearheaded by Drs Joanne Kim, Miranda Fidler-Benaoudia and a host of other amazing coauthors! Urgent action is necessary to avert the rising mortality crisis from breast cancer in the global majority!
Key takeaways for the world:
-Every minute 4 females are diagnosed with breast cancer and 1 female dies from it.. but where are these deaths seen globally?
-Fewer than 40% of breast cancers in Africa are at stage 1 and 2 with 26% of breast cancers being metastatic – a narrative that we need to urgently shift!
-One quarter of breast cancers can be prevented by decreasing alcohol intake, obesity, physical inactivity, exogenous hormone use and increasing breastfeeding: steps that we can actively implement on individual, community and policy levels
-Due to the population structure in Africa, women under 50 are disproportionately affected with devastating consequences for the family, e.g, 210 children are estimated to become maternal orphans for every 100 deaths in SSA.
There isn’t a one size fits all strategy for Africa. Optimising approaches for early detection, treatment and care delivery in our setting will require iterative approaches, knowledge sharing, multi sectoral collaborations and intentional investment in our health systems.
No matter where one lives, we can collectively agree, that where you live, should not determine if you live.
I am just one person, what can I do to change this? Get active, invest in a healthy lifestyle, build communities of engagement, let’s amplify these key messages to our policy makers and to each other!
Change needs to happen now!”
Quoting Ming Yang‘s post:
“Breast cancer is ranked as the most common diagnosed cancer and leading cause of death in women. In 2021, the World Health Organization launched the Global Breast Cancer Initiative for countries to reduce breast cancer mortality by 2.5% per year.
To inform progress in breast cancer control, it is important to document the current and future burden of breast cancer worldwide. Estimates from IARC – International Agency for Research on Cancer / World Health Organization report that 1 in 20 women could be diagnosed and 1 in 70 may die from breast cancer globally. But these statistics reveal stark regional disparities.
Women in low income regions have the highest mortality rates. For example- the lifetime risk of dying from breast cancer in France is 1 in 59, whereas this is 1 in 24 in Fiji. Only 7 countries are currently meeting the WHO’s mortality reduction targets.
Without urgent action – these inequities in breast cancer burden will become even wider. Investments are needed now towards prevention, early diagnosis, availability of treatments and comprehensive care. Closing the global breast cancer care gap will save lives.”
Global patterns and trends in breast cancer incidence and mortality across 185 countries
Authors: Joanne Kim et al.
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