The breast cancer rate is rising among women in Singapore and appears to be approaching that seen in Europe, researchers report. The introduction of a Westernized lifestyle and child-bearing pattern may underlie this trend, they suggest.

Lead investigator Dr. Kee-Seng Chia told Reuters Health that the breast cancer incidence in Singapore will continue to increase over the next decades. “In the year 2015, one out of every 10 women is likely to develop breast cancer in her lifetime.”

Chia, at the National University of Singapore, and colleagues came to this conclusion after comparing data for more than 10,000 breast cancer cases reported in Singapore from 1968 to 1997 with more than 135,000 Swedish cases in the same period.

The incidence rate of breast cancer increased in Sweden from 54 to 77 per 100,000 women. However, in Singapore the rate increased 20 to 44 per 100,000, the researchers report in the International Journal of Cancer.

They note that the incidence rate was increasing almost three times faster among the youngest age group of women in Singapore than in the corresponding group in Sweden.

In addition, continued Chia, an “increasing number of post-menopausal women will also be coming down with breast cancer as our pattern shifts from the pre-menopausal to post-menopausal age group.”

“It is too late for these women to avoid the risk factors,” Chia said. However, “Increased self-awareness and early diagnosis can catch the cancer at an early stage and improve prognosis.”

SOURCE: International Journal of Cancer, January 1, 2005.