By Mike Bassett
Source Medpagetoday
Inequities in breast cancer prevention, detection, treatment, and supportive care worldwide are leaving many patients with breast cancer “systematically left behind and forgotten,” according to a report from the Lancet Breast Cancer Commission.
Commission members noted that despite progress in research and cancer management that has substantially decreased breast cancer mortality in high-income countries, the World Health Organization still recorded 685,000 deaths from breast cancer worldwide in 2020, and treatment inequities remain an urgent challenge.
The multidisciplinary, international commission convened in 2021 with the goal of identifying key areas for change to influence global policy and to improve the lives of those affected by breast cancer.
“Recent improvements in breast cancer survival represent a great success of modern medicine. However, we can’t ignore how many patients are being systematically left behind,” said Charlotte Coles, PhD, of the University of Cambridge in England and the report’s lead author, in a statement accompanying the report’s publication. “Our commission builds on previous evidence, presents new data, and integrates patient voices to shed light on a large unseen burden. We hope that, by highlighting these inequities and hidden costs and suffering in breast cancer, they can be better recognized and addressed by healthcare professionals and policymakers in partnership with patients and the public around the world.”
Read more https://www.medpagetoday.com/hematologyoncology/breastcancer/109675