Breast Cancer is the most common cancer and also the primary cause of mortality due to
cancer in females around the world. Globally, 2.4 million newly diagnosed female breast
cancer cases are evaluated on the basis of demographic changes only, accounting for almost
1 in 4 cancer cases among women in the current year. In the modern epoch, the proportional
contribution to the global burden of breast cancer is growing rapidly in Asia.
In Pakistan, the risk of having breast cancer has increased, whereby one in every 9 women in
Pakistan has a lifetime risk of being diagnosed with breast cancer. Between 2015 and 2020,
the largest increase in breast cancer incidence has occurred among younger women aged less
than 34 years (70.7% for women aged 30–34 years). Unfortunately, the rate of deaths due to
breast cancer is also higher in the country, due to late diagnosis and delayed referral to the
appropriate facilities. Hence, the early diagnosis and early management of breast cancer can
progress the survival rate. In this regard, there is a need of research oriented initiatives or activities to address this significant health issue among female community of Pakistan.
Since, Breast cancer is one of the fields in oncology that has seen some major advances
internationally but there is a lack of substantial research on this subject matter in Pakistan.
Therefore, it is vital to provide community-based health education in which awareness must
be given to detect the early signs of breast cancer by breast self-examination or screening to
women of different age groups, specially the females from younger age group.
In this regard, ORIC-AIOU organized an online Interactive Session in collaboration with
Rawalpindi Medical University (RMU), Rawalpindi on “Breast Cancer Awareness and
Screening” on March 25, 2021 at 11:00 a.m. to 01:00 p.m. through Microsoft Teams.
The basic objective for holding this interactive session was to bring awareness among
academicians, researchers and women of Pakistan about breast cancer and self-assessment
practice.
Dr. Usman Qureshi, Coordinator for Universities forum for Breast Cancer Awareness &
Screening, Associate Professor, Rawalpindi Medical University (RMU), Rawalpindi and his
team were the Resource person(s) for the said online Interactive Session.
Seminar was attended by female students and faculty members/ Officers/ Officials from various departments who actively participated in this online interactive session.
