Breast cancer is the world’s most common cancer among women, and it is the most likely reason that a woman will die from cancer (maps 3.1 and 3.2). Breast cancer is becoming an increasingly urgent problem in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), where incidence rates, historically low, have been rising by as much as 5 percent per year (Bray and others 2013). High-income countries (HICs) report the highest breast cancer incidence rates (figure 3.1), but these countries have also made the most progress in improving outcomes (Jemal and others 2002). In 2010, the majority of the 425,000 global breast cancer deaths occurred in LMICs, and that percentage is expected to grow (Parkin and Fernandez 2006).
© 2015 International Bank for Reconstruction and Development / The World Bank.