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This study looked at available data taken from countries across the world to see how rates of incidence in breast cancer, and rates of mortality had changed over the last 10 years. Ireland has seen relatively steady incidence over that time, but a decrease in mortality, especially in those under 50. With this sort of study it is of note that there is more data available for developed nations.
Dr James Brown, Oncobiology and Molecular Therapeutics Group Leader, Department of Biological Sciences, University of Limerick, said:
“This report shows that In 2022 breast cancer accounted for 2.3 million new cases and 670,000 deaths worldwide, with significant regional differences found. While over the last 10 years the incidence rate has increased the most in many less developed countries, greater survival was seen more often in highly developed countries (like Ireland). Rates of breast cancer were highest in Australia, New Zealand, and North America, however mortality rates were highest in Melanesia, Polynesia and western Africa. While Ireland has had little change in the rates of breast cancer over the last 10 years, overall it has a very positive decrease in mortality, with the greatest improvements seen in survival in the under 50 year old age group.
This work sets a benchmark for understanding how effective breast cancer programs have been worldwide and demonstrates that Ireland is among the best the world in improving outcomes for breast cancer patients over the last 10 years. It also highlights that to effectively understand how well different cancer management strategies work we need to have strong and robust national cancer data collection strategies (such as our Irish National cancer registry) to guide our policy and management strategies as they continue to evolve.
Importantly while globally the greatest breast cancer burden was in women aged 50+, in Africa almost 50% of cases were in women younger than 50 years old. However, a limitation is these trends were analysed mainly in data from highly developed countries (like Ireland), which highlights that improvements in cancer data collection needed in many more countries, to get a more complete picture worldwide.
This work estimates that by 2050 annually there will be 3.2 million new cases of breast cancer, with 1.1 million women dying of breast cancer. The data suggests that investment in implementing known effective strategies around breast cancer management used in high income countries (including socioeconomic methods) would have outsize positive impacts in low and middle income countries and combat the rise in poorer outcomes seen there.”
‘Global patterns and trends in breast cancer incidence and mortality across 185 countries’ by Kim et al, was published in Nature Medicine at 16:00 Irish time, Monday 24th February 2025.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-025-03502-3
Declarations of interest:
Dr Power: “Previously funded by National Breast Cancer Research Institute Ireland – (NBCRI)
Current grant funding from the Health Research Institute (HRI), UL
Employed by the University of Limerick (previously employed at University of Galway)
I am a member of:
Steering committee Limerick Digital Cancer Research Centre (LDCRC), and LDCRC member
Steering committee All-Island Cancer Research Institute (AICRI), and AICRI member
Scientific Lead of the Breast Cancer Research Collaborative group (UHL and UL), and member
Committee Member of British Society for Cell Biology (BSCB), and BSCB member
Committee Member Biochemical Society Publications Committee), and Member Biochemical Society member
Patient and Public Involvement Steering (PPI) Committee member. University Hospital Limerick, University of Limerick.
Academic Editor PLOS One journal
Editorial Board member of the Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Education (BAMBEd)
Associate Editor Cancers journal.
Member of the Irish Association for Cancer Research (IACR)- and former committee member.”