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Breast Cancer is the most common cancer in India, including cities and rural areas. On this page, collectively, I have put up the statistics of breast cancer in Indian cities like Ahmedabad, Aurangabad, Bhopal, Dibrugarh, Nagpur and Thiruvananthapuram. The inference for all cities is almost the same, and you will feel that I have copy pasted the conclusions for all cities - I have, actually! Since the comclusions are the same for all. The only difference will be the numbers.
The statistics have been sourced from the Publication of PBCR 2012 - 2014 and HBCR 2007 - 2011 (PBCR = Population Based Cancer Registry, an arm of NCRP). Unfortunately, any published Indian data after this is not available (or atleast I am not aware). Globocan 2018 cites country wide breast cancer statistics for the year 2018, but does not give city wise breakup. So, for the time being, we stick to PBCR data, and also the personal experiences of many Oncologists treating Breast Cancer in these cities, who do agree with the rising trend in young and increasing numbers.
The charts below were published in the PBCR 2012 - 2014 data. They show, unequivocally, that breast cancer indeed is the most common cancer in Ahmedabad and accounts for almost one fourth of all cancers in women in Ahmedabad.
From this chart showing the percentage wise distribution of different cancers in Ahmedabad:
Breast Cancer is the most common cancer in women in Ahmedabad and accounted for 31.5% of all cancer cases in women in Ahmedabad. This almost amounts to one third of all cancers. This means, every third cancer detected in a woman in Ahmedabad will be breast cancer.
The second most common cancer was cancer of the cervix, which was 9.3% of all cancers in women. You can judge the difference between the first (breast cancer), and the second (cervical cancer), telling us how much the numbers of breast cancer in Ahmedabad are increasing.
The numbers in the registry might be lower than the real incidence, because some breast cancer patients are managed at smaller hospitals and may not be reported at all.
From this chart showing the percentage wise distribution of different cancers in Aurangabad:
Breast Cancer is the most common cancer in women in Aurangabad and accounted for 30.6% of all cancer cases in women in Aurangabad. This almost amounts to almost one third to one fourth of all cancers. This means, every third or fourth cancer detected in a woman in Aurangabad will be breast cancer.
The second most common cancer was cancer of the cervix, which was 19.9% of all cancers in women. Like in Ahmedabad above, you can yourself judge the difference between the first (breast cancer), and the second (cervical cancer), telling us how much the numbers of breast cancer in Aurangabad are increasing.
The numbers in the registry might be lower than the real incidence, because some breast cancer patients are managed at smaller hospitals, and may not be reported at all.
From this chart showing the percentage wise distribution of different cancers in Bhopal:
Breast Cancer is the most common cancer in women in Bhopal and accounted for 31.2% of all cancer cases in women in Bhopal. This almost amounts to about one third of all cancers. This means, every third cancer detected in a woman in Bhopal will be breast cancer.
The second most common cancer was cancer of the cervix, which was 12.5% of all cancers in women. You can yourself judge the difference between the first (breast cancer), and the second (cervical cancer), telling us how much the numbers of breast cancer in Bhopal are increasing.
The numbers in the registry might be lower than the real incidence, because some breast cancer patients are managed at smaller hospitals and may not be reported at all.
Again, this is an older chart, but one of the few available to show the trends. See the trends of both cervical cancer and breast cancer. Breast Cancer has increased over last few decades while cervical cancer has actually reduced.
From this chart showing the percentage wise distribution of different cancers in Dibrugarh:
Breast Cancer is the most common cancer in women in Dibrugarh and accounted for 19.0% of all cancer cases in women in Dibrugarh. This almost amounts to one fifth of all cancers. This means, every fifth cancer detected in a woman in Dibrugarh will be breast cancer.
The second most common cancer was cancer of the cervix, which was 10.7% of all cancers in women. You can see there is a difference between the first (breast cancer), and the second (cervical cancer), telling us how much the numbers of breast cancer in Dibrugarh are increasing.
The numbers in the registry might be lower than the real incidence, because some breast cancer patients are managed at smaller hospitals and may not be reported at all.
This chart is a little old, for present, but is the only one available, which is showing distribution of breast cancer in women in Dibrugarh according totheir age group. We have marked out the percentage distribution for age group of 25 to 49, and it comes to about 64.9% of all breast cancer cases. this number is unusually high and may be incidental for a few years, but most cities do have about 40% to 50% of breast cancers being in younger age group. This tells us about the rising numbers in younger women.
From this chart showing the percentage wise distribution of different cancers in Nagpur:
Breast Cancer is the most common cancer in women in Nagpur and accounted for 31.9% of all cancer cases in women in Nagpur. This almost amounts to almost one third of all cancers. This means, every third cancer detected in a woman in Nagpur will be breast cancer.
The second most common cancer was cancer of the cervix, which was 13.5% of all cancers in women. You can see the difference between the first (breast cancer), and the second (cervical cancer), telling us how much the numbers of breast cancer in Nagpur are increasing.
The numbers in the registry might be lower than the real incidence, because some breast cancer patients are managed at smaller hospitals, and may not be reported at all.
From this chart showing the percentage wise distribution of different cancers in Thiruvananthapuram:
Breast Cancer is the most common cancer in women in Thiruvananthapuram and accounted for 28.5% of all cancer cases in women in Thiruvananthapuram. This almost amounts to one third to one fourth of all cancers. This means, every third or fourth cancer detected in a woman in Thiruvananthapuram will be breast cancer.
The second most common cancer was cancer of the thyroid, which was 10.4% of all cancers in women and the third was cancer of cervix which was 6%.
The numbers in the registry might be lower than the real incidence, because some breast cancer patients are managed at smaller hospitals and may not be reported at all.
This chart is a little old, for present, but is the only one available, which is showing distribution of breast cancer in women in Thiruvananthapuram according totheir age group. We have marked out the percentage distribution for age group of 25 to 49, and it comes to about 47.7% of all breast cancer cases. This tells us about the rising numbers in younger women.
The message is pretty clear. The numbers of breast cancer (for all age groups) in all Indian cities is rising. We are also seeing more and more numbers of breast cancer in the younger age group (Most cancers in the young tend to be aggressive). The reason is not that few decades back, it was not detected earlier and now it is being detected earlier. The reason is that there has been a very genuine rise in the incidence of breast cancer in younger women.
So the need of the hour is education of the masses - 'Breast Awareness', so that, if they 'know' what happens in breast cancer and what are the symptoms of breast cancer, they can definitely catch it early in case they develop it, they report earlier to appropriate doctors and have a higher chances of a cure or prolonged survival.
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