MEXICO, (September 30, 2021).- Breast cancer maintains an upward trend in Mexico, due to numerous factors, ranging from taboos and current types of behaviors, to the failure of prevention and timely detection strategies and even the genetic mutations that prevail in the population specialists agreed.
The situation is even more complicated due to the prevailing under-registration; women go for the respective test when they are over 40 years of age, or when the pathology is advanced.
In the framework of the virtual press conference, called “The Contrasts of Life”, the situation that prevails in the country was presented as well as modern imaging methods for the precise diagnosis of this type of cancer.
The director of Research and Teaching of the Breast Cancer Foundation (Fucam), Juan Alberto Tenorio Torres, stressed that each year, this pathology increases steadily, while in other types there is already a control.
According to the trend in mortality and numbers of cases due to breast cancer in Mexico “, from 1955 to date” there is an upward trend, the incidence has not stopped, it continues to rise, ” he said.
He recognized that it is a multifactorial problem, and stated the case of the current lifestyle of the population.
He indicated that a recent study determined that one of the reasons is genetic mutations in the Mexican population, although he did not elaborate on this, in addition to hereditary factors.
“Mexico has recently the effects of first-world diseases but with third-world resources,” he said.
He recognized that at the beginning, strategies for the prevention and timely detection of breast cancer failed, which have improved remarkably, but there is still much to do.
Similarly, in the country there is a fragmented health system, as each instance has different strategies, since the guidelines of the Ministry of Health are different from those of the Mexican Institute of Social Security (IMSS), as well as the Institute of Security and Social Services of State Workers (Issste), and then private clinics have their own protocols and guidelines.
For her part, the specialist Daniela Belmont commented that in Mexico taboos and myths still prevail about the real situation of breast cancer.
She exemplified the case that the tests should only be done by women over 40 years of age, and in the event the case of a 15-year-old girl with this pathology was enunciated.
Machismo and the way of thinking of some people limit the patient’s approach to the doctor, hence the importance of strengthening patient awareness measures.
She highlighted that 70 percent of diagnosed cases are in an advanced stage, so that those affected are only limited to palliative care.
The head of radiology at Fucam, Kictzia Larios Cruz, said that numerous studies have shown that screening mammograms lead to a reduction in mortality from breast cancer and that adjuvant therapy reduces the risk of recurrence.
Finally, according to the federal Ministry of Health it revealed that so far, 11,472 accumulated confirmed cases have already been registered in the country, with an increase of 39.1 percent over the previous year, when the sum was 8,248.
In the case of Yucatán, there are 217 cases, with an increase of 112.7 percent compared to 2020, when the accumulated was 102.
Currently, it is in 16th place in the national table, with an incidence of 1.9 percent of the total registered in the country.
Regarding gender, of the total of the Mexican Republic, there are 11,242 women, 98 percent, and 230 men, two percent, while in Yucatan there are 216 women, 99.5 percent, and a man, the 0.5 percentage.
TYT Newsroom
