Latest Statistics of Breast Cancer in India 2020

A rising trend in younger women

LATEST STATISTICS OF BREAST CANCER IN INDIA 2020

Breast Cancer is the Most common cancer in women in India, in both males and females combined, in cities in India and in rural areas of India as well. There are various sources of statistics for breast cancer in India. The statistics and images shown on this page are all from Globocan 2018 (Globocan belongs to IARC - International Agency for Research on Cancer). We have data from NCRP (National Cancer Registry programme, India) as well, but since the last publication of NCRP data is 2014, we have represented data from Globocan, which is for the year 2018.

Breast Cancer in India

BREAST CANCER INCIDENCE

'Incidence' means the number of women who were newly detected with breast cancer in that year. For the year 2018, 162,468 women were newly detected with breast Cancer in India. Also, Breast Cancer accounted for 27.7% of all newly detected cancers in women. Which means, roughly, one in four newly detected cancer in women in India was breast cancer.

BREAST CANCER MORTALITY

'Mortality' means the number of women who died due to breast cancer in that year. For the year 2018, 87,090 women died due to breast Cancer in India. Breast Cancer accounted for about 23.5% of all cancer related deaths in women in India. Which means that, almost about one in four deaths due to cancer, in women in India, was due to breast cancer.

Age Distribution of Breast Cancer in India

The rise in breast cancer has been especially in the younger age groups.

Incidence means the numbers of women detected with breast cancer in that particular year, and is represented by the blue color in the charts below. The charts represent data for the year 2018. So the numbers in 'Incidence' represent the number of women who were newly detected with breast cancer for the year 2018.
Mortality means the numbers of women who died of breast cancer in that particular year, and is represented by the red color in the charts below. In the charts below, the mortality numbers have been highlighted with red arrows in the column 'count'

Breast Cancer India women 25 to 49 age group

Breast Cancer in 25 to 49 years age group

In women in India, for the year 2018:

61,264 out of an estimated total 186,965 cases of cancer, were due to breast cancer, for the age group of 25 to 49 years.
Breast Cancer accounted for 32.8% of all cancer cases in women in India for that year (2018), for that age group. Roughly, that translates into one third of all cases of cancer in the age group of 25 to 49 years, being due to breast cancer.
21,892 women died of breast cancer for this age group
Cancer of the Cervix and Cancer of the Ovary are the second and third most common cancers in this age group. These three account for more than 60 percent cancers in women in 25 to 49 age group, in India.
61,264 x 100 / 162468 = 37.70%. So, the breast cancers in 25 to 49 years age group accounted for 37.70% of all breast cancers in women in India, for the year 2018.

Breast Cancer India women 50 to 69 age group

Breast Cancer in 50 to 69 years age group

In women in India, for the year 2018:

75,574 out of an estimated total 271,076 cases of cancer, were due to breast cancer, for the age group of 50 to 69 years.
Breast Cancer accounted for 27.9% of all cancer cases in women in India for that year (2018), for that age group. Roughly, that translates into a little more thanone fourth of all cases of cancer in the age group of 50 to 69 years, being due to breast cancer.
44,051 women died of breast cancer for this age group
Cancer of the Cervix and Cancer of the Ovary are the second and third most common cancers in this age group. These three account for about 50 percent cancers in women in 50 to 69 age group, in India.
75,574 x 100 / 162468 = 46.50%. So, the breast cancers in 50 to 69 years age group accounted for 46.50% of all breast cancers in women in India, for the year 2018.

Breast Cancer India women 70 plus age group

Breast Cancer in the age group of 70 and above

In women in India, for the year 2018:

25,056 out of an estimated total 107,165 cases of cancer, were due to breast cancer, for the age group of 70 and above .
Breast Cancer accounted for 23.4% of all cancer cases in women in India for that year (2018), for that age group. Roughly, that translates into a little less thanone fourth of all cases of cancer in the age group of 70 and above, being due to breast cancer.
20,938 women died of breast cancer for this age group
Cancer of the Cervix and Cancer of the Lip and Oral Cavity are the second and third most common cancers in this age group.
25,096 x 100 / 162468 = 15.5%. So, the breast cancers in 70 years and above age group accounted for 15.50% of all breast cancers in women in India, for the year 2018.

Discussion

The charts are interesting and a thorough look at the charts above tell us a lot of things:

Breast Cancer is fairly common in the younger age group (25 to 49 years), accounting for almost 37.7% of all cases, which is a pretty high number. Breast Cancer peaks in the age group of 50 to 69 (which accounts for almost 46.5% of all cases) and then starts reducing in the age group of 70 years and above. It may not actually be reducing, but it has something to do with life expectancy.
In women, the maximum chances of developing any cancer are in the 50 to 69 years age group, which has the highest number of cancer overall.
In younger and middle age group, ovarian cancer is third most common, while in the age group of 70 and above, it reduces
Combining the age group of 25 to 49 and 50 to 69, breast cancer seems to be more common in the latter half of 25 to 49 and earlier half of 50 to 69 - which means, the 40 to 60 years age group. So we must target this age group for education and breast awareness as well as for education on regular screening mammography.

POINTS TO NOTE

It is important to understand that breast cancer can occur in the younger population as well. We saw that 37.7% of all newly detected breast cancer cases were in the 25 to 49 years age group. For most, breast cancer is an illness of the elderly, but it is not so. Also, many young breast cancers tend to be very aggressive and have to be tackled in proper sequence of surgery and other treatments, and needless to say, early detection wil ldefinitely give high cure rates.

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