10 China

43 Japan

41 South Korea

45 Taiwan

44 Hong Kong

24 Thailand

27 Malaysia

43 Singapore

48 Australia

8 India

OverallCountry

Score

220114

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666788

868788

867788

440673

442458

866788

888888

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HOW PREPARED ARE COUNTRIES TO RESPOND ?Success against breast cancer requires health systems to engage in a wide range of activities simultaneously. These include data gathering; awareness-raising; establishing the facilities to encourage and engage in early diagnosis; providing multi-disciplinary treatment which provides a co-ordinated range of interventions depending on individual circumstances; ensuring long-term care and support for those who have been through primary treatment; and providing palliative care for women who are dying from the disease. To get a better view of how countries in the region are addressing this disease, The EIU has produced a detailed scorecard which considers policy around all these aspects of breast cancer control. Countries were ranked on their aggregate score across six areas of breast cancer policy deemed to be most important.

Each category was scored from 0, for very weak, to 8, for very strong.

Note: 1Country figures in: J Ferlay et al., Globocan 2012 v1.0: Cancer Incidence and Mortality Worldwide, 2013 http://globocan.iarc.fr

MR:IR

Highest rate of MR:IR

0.16Hong Kong

0.19Japan

0.12South Korea

0.18Taiwan0.16

Australia

0.49Malaysia

0.38Thailand

0.49India

0.30%MR:IR

world average

0.24China

0.24Singapore

Lowest rate of five-year survival

89%Japan

WHERE BREAST CANCERIS DEADLIESTIf caught early, breast cancer is largely treatable. In well-off countries in the region, the five-year survival rate (the percentage of people who are alive five years after diagnosis) is typically between around 80% and 92%, with five countries having figures roughly comparable to that in the United States. But data indicate that progress against the disease is highly uneven in the region, with five-year survival rates in developing countries such as Thailand, India and Malaysia far behind their developed country counterparts. Moreover, national figures mask huge disparities within countries, notably between urban and rural areas. Mortality ratio:Incidence ratio figures (which show the number of deaths as a percentage of incidence) must be viewed with caution in some cases, due to incomplete data. In China, for example, though collection of incidence information has improved, cancer registries rely on the country’s death statistics system, which Globocan describes as incomplete. Mortality rates may well be under-estimated and, given the magnitude of the numbers involved, even a small increase would raise the MR:IR ratio quickly.

87%Taiwan 80%

Singapore 73%China

90%Hong Kong

92%South Korea

89%Australia

49%Malaysia

63%Thailand 52%

India

Five-year survival rates

89%US five-yearsurvival rate

WHAT THE FUTURE HOLDSBreast cancer on the risePercentage increase in estimated number of breast cancer cases between 2012 and 2025

12%South Korea

26%Australia

22%China

34%India

37%Singapore

49%Malaysia

4%Japan

19%Thailand

WHERE BREAST CANCERIS MOST COMMONIncidence per 100,000There is substantial variation in the incidence of breast cancer between countries in the region. The age-standardised rate (ASR) of incidence in China, for example, is about one-quarter that in Australia. Based on recent trends, however, the burden of breast cancer looks set to grow, as lifestyles change and especially as populations age.

29.3Thailand

51.5Japan

64.3Taiwan

86.0Australia

61.2Hong Kong

38.7Malaysia

65.7Singapore

52.1South Korea

25.8India

22.1China

BREAST CANCER IN ASIA The challenge and response

© The Economist Intelligence Unit, 2016.

Once largely confined to Western countries and Australasia, breast cancer is now a major healthcare issue acrossAsia-Pacific. Already it is the most common form of cancer for women in nine of the ten Asia-Pacific jurisdictions covered in Breast cancer in Asia: The challenge and response, an Economist Intelligence Unit study commissioned by Pfizer.

Sources: Where breast cancer is most common: GlobocanWhat the future holds: EIU calculations based on data from Globocan and United Nations World Population ProspectsWhere breast cancer is deadliest: National cancer registries, EIU calculations

To view the full report and understand how Asian countriesare responding to the challenge of breast cancer, click here.