The urgent need for a population based breast screening program for the early detection of breast cancer in Papua New Guinea: Central coordination is the key to developing a breast cancer screening in PNG

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].