The urgent need for a population based breast screening program for the early detection of breast cancer in Papua New Guinea

The continued rise in the incidence of breast cancer in Papua New Guinea (PNG) and the need for a coordinated approach to combat the burden of the disease has been acknowledged in the National Health Plan 2011-2020 [1]. The World Health Organisation (WHO) lists breast cancer as the female cancer with the highest incidence and the leading cause of mortality amongst women in PNG. In 2020, 1 570 new cases of breast cancer were diagnosed representing 23.2% of all cancers reported and 847 (11.6%) deaths [2]. It must however be recognized that the true incidence of breast cancer in PNG is unknown as even registrations at the new National Cancer Registry [3] do not accurately reflect the true rates of mortality and morbidity as surveillance remains ad hoc and many cancers continue to be undiagnosed and unreported [4].