Breast cancer diagnostic delays in pakistan: a looming epidemic threat

Abstract

Breast cancer is a major contributing factor to the mortality and morbidity burden among the female population in Asia. In 2020, a total of 1.2 million newly diagnosed breast cancer cases and an estimated 3.5 million deaths due to breast cancer were reported in Asia (International Agency for Research on Cancer, 2020a). In particular, Pakistan notably reported the highest proportion of breast cancer cases in Asia. Research estimates that one out of nine women in Pakistan is at a high risk of suffering from breast cancer in their lifetime. The constant growth in breast cancer rates in Pakistan indicates that breast cancer is rapidly reaching epidemic proportions and poses an urgent challenge to Pakistan's public health system. Due to system-level and patient-level delay factors, Pakistani women often seek medical care for breast carcinoma at an advanced stage of the disease, whereby survival chances are minimal. The key to mitigating the breast cancer burden in Pakistan is to foster early detection programs among Pakistani women. This review aims to examine the root causes of delayed detection of breast cancer in Pakistani women, emphasize the pivotal role of early detection in individuals' and populations' health promotion, and highlight nursing implications in promoting breast cancer early detection programs. A comprehensive literature search was conducted in databases including CINAHL, Google Scholar, and Scopus. The review consists of articles from 2005 to 2020 published in the English language only. Furthermore, the study also highlights the need for context-specific and culturally sensitive early breast cancer detection programs to potentially reduce barriers in the uptake of screening services among Pakistani women.