New research finds 1 in 3 women in rural India have never heard of breast cancer

Most women in rural India are unaware of how to examine themselves for breast cancer, and one in three have never heard of breast cancer at all, according to a dissertation delivered at Umeå University in Umeå, Sweden.

“Early detection may be crucial for successful breast cancer treatment,” Nitin Gangane, a doctoral student at the Department of Public Health and Clinical Medicine at Umeå University, said in a prepared statement. “Therefore, it's important to influence women's awareness of the symptoms and their attitudes towards treatment. Illiteracy, ignorance, poverty and superstition regretfully lead to many women delaying their contact with the health care system too long.”

Gangane performed two separate studies on the women of Maharashtra in central India. He found that 90 percent of women in rural areas were unaware that self-examination of their breasts was possible. One in three of those women “had not heard of breast cancer at all.” Gangane did note, however, that women are interested in the topic and want to learn more.

In his research, Gangane also found 23 percent of breast cancer patients experienced a delay in diagnosis and treatment that lasted more than 12 weeks. One common reason for the delay in care was women did not feel any pain in the lump in their breast; they thought this meant the issue was not serious.

Gangane noted that women throughout India must learn, and pay attention to, the symptoms associated with breast cancer. “It's urgent to have a national breast cancer program in India, while at local level, we need to raise awareness among women about breast cancer,” he said in the same statement.