Introduction

Breast cancer is the second most common cancer in the world and, by far, the most frequent cancer among women with an estimated 1.67 million new cancer cases diagnosed in 2012 (25% of all cancers).¹ It is the most common cancer in women both in developed and developing regions with slightly more cases in developed regions than in developing regions. Incidence rates vary nearly four-fold across the world regions, with rates ranging from 27 per 100,000 in Middle Africa and Eastern Asia to 92per 100,000 in Northern America.² In India, breast cancer was estimated to cause 6.1 deaths per 100,000 population in the year 2016. The survival rate decreased by 2.7 times for breast cancer, in case of detection at stage IV as against stage I. A total of 80,700 women died of cancer breast in 2016 in India.³

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Tarun Kumar

Senior Resident, Department of Radiotherapy, VMMC & Safdarjung Hospital, New Delhi, India