Thank You, Deeply

Once considered a disease of the developed world, the burden of breast cancer cases is shifting to low-income countries. A huge discrepancy in survival chances means the majority of breast cancer deaths – almost 70 percent – already occur in the developing world. And health experts warn that of the estimated 1.7 million women who will be diagnosed with breast cancer in 2020, most will be in the developing world.

In this series, we examine the reasons behind the numbers. Four-fifths of women in low-income countries don’t get a diagnosis until their disease is in its later stages – too late for a cure. That’s due to a variety of factors, including lack of awareness, a shortfall in funding, limited access to healthcare and, in many parts of the world, superstition and misinformation surrounding the disease.

We talk to the people who diagnose and treat breast cancer in underfunded countries, from the Thai doctor who opens the doors of his state-of-the art breast cancer center to impoverished patients for free, to initiatives that bring mobile cancer-screening equipment to women in remote communities. Together, they hope to stop breast cancer from being a death sentence for women in the developing world.