Identification of Possible Blood Based Breast Cancer Biomarkers

Breast cancer (BC) is the most common malignancy worldwide and accounts for 11.7% among all cancers in both the sexes, with an annual incidence of 2.3 million. BC is the leading malignancy in 159 of 185 countries and has an increasing trend in incidence from 1996-2018. Moreover, there is an 88% higher incidence in transitioned countries than the transitioning countries (55.9 and 29.7 per 100,000, respectively). The American cancer society has estimated an incidence of 287,850 invasive BC and 51,400 of non-invasive BC in US for the year 2022. The incidence of BC has increased not only due to the change in risk factor profiles but also because of reduced screening and delayed first treatments due COVID-19.

Besides being the most prevalent, BC remains as leading cause of cancer deaths among women worldwide with a mortality rate of 684,996 [95% UI, 675,493-694,633]. Cancer Facts & Figures 2022 from the American Cancer Society predicted a mortality rate of 43,250 in the US. Although the BC incidence rates were highest in developed regions, their 5-year survival rates for localised and regional BC were 89.6% and 75.4% as opposed to the developing countries in like Costa Rica, India, Philippines, and Thailand which showed survival of 76.3% for localised and 47.4% for regional BC.

BC in Indian females accounts for 8.2% of all cancers; the age standardised incidence rate of female BC increased by 39·1% (95% UI 5·1-85·5) during 1990 to 2016. India reflects a culturally diverse country with varying degrees of development, lifestyle and diet leading to a heterogeneous distribution of disease burden. As per the global burden initiative report the age-standardised incidence rate of BC varied 3·2 times across the Indian states. In India, majority of patients present at locally advanced or at metastatic stages at the time of diagnosis. The constant increase and variations in BC occurrence might be due to the lack of early detection screening strategies, low outreach of existing diagnostic measures and interplay of various risk factors associated with the disease.