Abstract
Cancer of breast has emerged as the leading site of cancer in most urban populations of India. For the year 2007, there have been an estimated 82,000 new cases of cancer Breast in India. It is rapidly replacing cancer of cervix as the most important leading site of cancer among women. The data collected over the years from five urban population based cancer registries namely Bangalore, Bhopal, Chennai, Delhi and Mumbai, under the network of National Cancer Registry Programme (NCRP) have shown a statistical rising trend in the incidence rate of breast cancer. In hospital-based cancer registries, cancer of the breast is the leading site of cancer in Mumbai and Thiruvananthapuram, second leading site in Bangalore, Dibrugarh and Chennai. Cancer of breast constitutes 14.3 to 30.0% of all cancers in women in these HBCRs. The report on 'Development of an Atlas of Cancer in India' showed that Chandigarh (39.5), North Goa (36.8), Aizawl (36.2) and Panchkula (34.6) had the higher microscopic incidence rates of breast cancer compared to that seen in Delhi PBCR that had the highest rate among all PBCRs.