Trend of Breast Cancer Incidence in Iran During A Fifteen-Year Interval According To National Cancer Registry Reports

Introduction: Breast cancer is the most common cancer and cause of cancer-related death in women. Recent years have witnessed dramatic changes in the incidence and mortality rates of breast cancer. Therefore, this study aimed to provide a report of breast cancer incidence trends between 2003 and 2017. Methods: This cross-sectional study examined Iran’s cancer registry reports from 2003 to 2017. We used age-specific breast cancer incidence rate of different age and sex groups in different years. This statistics were compared with predicted incidence values for Iran in international centers Results: The incidence of breast cancer showed an increasing trend in Iran according to national cancer registry reports between 2003 and 2017 in both women and men. In 2003 and 2017, the age-specific incidence rates of breast cancer were 15.96 and 40.72 per 100,000 women, respectively. In 2017, the highest incidence rate of breast cancer was observed in the age groups of 65-69 years (128.33 per 100,000 women) and 60-64 years (127.79 per 100,000 women) and mostly in Isfahan, Yazd, Gilan, and Alborz provinces. Conclusion: The incidence of breast cancer in Iran has had an increasing trend in recent years and the reported values ​​are higher than the values ​​estimated by world scientific cancer centers. This increasing trend emphasizes the need for national policies for timely diagnosis of patients with breast cancer to increase their survival rate and quality of life.