October is the month of breast cancer awareness. Consequently, this results in a ton of informative articles about breast cancer online/, and that is a wonderful thing, as the awareness of breast cancer is as important as early detection, as they help doctors catch the disease when it can be treated without any complications.
The incidence rates for breast cancer in Africa are still generally low, estimated below 35 per 100,000 women compared to over 90-120 cases per 100,000 women in North America. Despite the varying values of occurrence in both regions above, their mortality rates for breast cancer are almost identical, at about 15 per 100,000.
In essence, while the advanced and developed countries account for approximately one-half of all the cases of breast cancer, they only record 38% of deaths.
That might lead you to ask why? How could this be? More than 70% of African women that present with breast cancer at hospitals present in the later stages of the disease, such as stage III or IV. And this late presentation and delay in seeking treatment contribute to the high death rates from breast cancer in Africa.
One way to detect breast cancer early to avoid late presentation is to go for breast cancer screening. All women at the age of 30 should have a risk assessment screening to see if they need to start screening earlier than age 40 because women with an average risk for breast cancer should start screening at age 40.
So we see that awareness and early detection are vital in increasing the number of breast cancer survivors in Africa. And we at Success Afrika will be playing our part in promoting breast cancer awareness by sharing some educative posts about the disease. Be sure to check them out.
