Philippine Cancer Society, 2024
From the Philippine Statistics at a glance, 2022 (Cancer Today, GLOBOCAN 2022) 1, derived from the Philippine Cancer Society-Manila Cancer Registry and Department of Health-Rizal Cancer Registry (2013-2017, extrapolated to 2022 population), breast cancer was top cancer site among females (31.4%) and both sexes (17.5%); lung cancer was top cancer site among males (20%). For both sexes, lung cancer has the highest death rate (18.5%), and second is breast cancer (10.5%).
Philippine Cancer Society-Manila Cancer Registry (PCS-MCR) is a population-based cancer registry (PBCR) covering the geographical area of the Metro Manila cities of Caloocan, Quezon, Manila, and Pasay. PCS-MCR has been in existence contributing to the WHO IARC Cancer in 5 Continents since 1992. 2
From PCS-MCR PBCR years 2017-2021, here is a random sample (n=1173) of Breast Cancer cases at a glance:
The average age was 54 years (range = 23-99), with 99% females and 1% males. All cases were diagnosed via clinical investigation and pathology. See Table 1.
The cases were mainly in their economically reproductive age group (Figure 1).
There were 147 cases with Stage IIB, considered as locally advanced disease. There were 57% Stage IIB-IV cases (not counting cases with unknown disease stage).
Within the incident years 2017-2021, proportion of cases alive were relatively favorable across all age groups, prompting a future analytical look at the accessibility of and compliance with prescribed prompt treatment (Figure 3).
The least proportion of cases alive was in Stage IV (Figure 4). Breast cancer diagnosed at early stages were with good survival. There were however relatively few cases diagnosed at very early stages, prompting a strong recommendation towards an organized breast cancer screening/ early detection program nationwide.
This 2024, Cancer in the Philippines V6 (PCS-MCR and DOH-RCR PBCR, 2008-2012) will be available. In 2025, Cancer in the Philippines V7 (PCS-MCR and DOH-RCR, 2013-2017) will be available. In 2025 too, WHO-IARC is coming up with a study on breast cancer survival before during and after the Covid-19 pandemic, which includes the PCS-MCR PBCR 2017-2022 dataset.
Reference:
- Philippine Statistics at a glance, 2022 (Cancer Today, GLOBOCAN 2022). https://gco.iarc.who.int/today/en/dataviz/pie?mode=cancer&types=0&sexes=1&populations=608, accessed April 2024.
- https://www.philcancer.org.ph/index.php/educational/cancer-registry , accessed August 2024.