Breast Cancer Awareness Month 2023

To mark Breast Cancer Awareness Month 2023, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) will highlight recent and new results related to the global burden of breast cancer, risk factors for developing breast cancer, and initiatives to prevent breast cancer.

In 2020, female breast cancer became the most commonly diagnosed cancer type globally: about 2.26 million women were diagnosed with breast cancer, and about 685 000 women died from the disease.

However, the causes of breast cancer remain poorly understood, and more research is urgently needed to better understand how and why it develops, including studies of occupational and environmental factors. Most patients with breast cancer have a good prognosis or a high likelihood of long-term survival if the cancer is detected at an early stage and the patients have access to the correct treatment. Therefore, projects to develop and implement effective screening methods and programmes are essential to reduce the high mortality due to breast cancer, not only in high-income countries but worldwide.