Breast Cancer Is Our Global Responsibility

Breast cancer is a global problem. In 2012, more than 1.5 million women were newly diagnosed with this disease worldwide, and about half a million women died from the disease (www.globocan.iarc.fr). Incidence and mortality rates differ greatly between countries and world regions. Whereas incidence as well as mortality tend to de - crease in several European countries or Canada, both are still rising in some South American countries (1) and other parts of the world. The CONCORD 2 survey included more than 5.5 million women from about 200 registries in more than 50 countries for the recent report in 2015. For women diagnosed between 2005 and 2009, the 5-year survival was 80% or more in 34 countries around the globe. Yet, in some countries 5-year survival still was substantially lower, in particular in India, some Asian countries or in South Africa (2). We as the editors-in-chief have therefore invited several inter- national colleagues to write about breast cancer incidence and mortality in their region of the world for this last issue of Breast