Breast Cancer Researchwire | Pharma intelligence

There were an estimated 558,000 incident cases of breast cancer across the analyzed markets in 2015, with moderate growth forecasted over the next 20 years

Datamonitor Healthcare’s epidemiological forecast revealed that there were an estimated 558,000 incident cases of breast cancer across the US, Japan, and five major EU markets (France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and the UK) in 2015. The largest proportion of cases occurred in the US and the smallest proportion in Spain (44% and 5% respectively). Geographic variation in the incident population of breast cancer in 2015 can be attributed to differences in population size and structure, and in the estimated incidence rates. By 2035, the number of incident cases of breast cancer across the US, Japan, and five major EU markets is predicted to increase to 660,710 cases.

Figure: Trends in incident cases of breast cancer in females in the US, Japan, and five major EU markets, by country, 2015–35

In 2015, the largest proportion (49%) of incident breast cancer cases were diagnosed in individuals aged 50–69 years. However, by 2035, the majority of incident breast cancer cases are expected to be diagnosed in females aged 60–79 years (50%). This difference is due to population aging.

The majority (84%) of incident breast cancer cases were diagnosed at Stage I or II, where the tumor is small and has either not spread outside the breast, or where small areas of breast cancer cells are found in the lymph nodes close to the breast. This finding is an illustration of a great public health success – population breast screening.

Hormone receptor-positive cancers, where breast cancers present with overexpression of estrogen receptor or progesterone receptor (or both), is the most common breast cancer subtype. Across all analyzed countries, luminal A, where cases are positive for estrogen or progesterone receptors and negative for human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2), was the most common subtype among incident breast cancer cases (70%) in 2015.

Datamonitor Healthcare’s Epidemiology: Breast cancer module provides a detailed epidemiological analysis of the incidence of breast cancer across the US, Japan, and five major EU markets. This includes a 20-year incidence forecast (2015–35), age and gender segmentations, and subtype (luminal A, luminal B, HER2 overexpressing and triple-negative) and stage segmentations. An interactive epidemiology datapack also provides a 20-year prevalence forecast segmented by disease subtype and selected biomarkers. In addition, the datapack incorporates treatment data from Datamonitor Healthcare’s proprietary breast cancer physician survey in order to estimate actively treated and drug treated cases of breast cancer segmented by disease subtype, stage, and line of therapy.