{"id":187328,"date":"2025-10-06T19:20:44","date_gmt":"2025-10-06T17:20:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/efecomunica.efe.com\/?p=187328"},"modified":"2025-10-06T19:39:36","modified_gmt":"2025-10-06T17:39:36","slug":"breast-cancer-care-in-latin-america-hampered-by-inequality-lack-of-resources","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/efecomunica.efe.com\/en\/breast-cancer-care-in-latin-america-hampered-by-inequality-lack-of-resources\/","title":{"rendered":"Breast cancer care in Latin America hampered by inequality, lack of resources"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mexico City, Oct 6 (EFE).\u2013<\/strong> Latin America and the Caribbean face sharp inequalities in access to breast cancer care<\/strong>, along with limited resources<\/strong> to confront the disease.<\/p>\n

Breast cancer is the leading cause of cancer deaths among women in the region, which in 2020 recorded more than 210,000 new cases<\/strong> and nearly 68,000 deaths<\/strong>, according to the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO)<\/strong> and the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC)<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

The organizations warn that, although early detection and timely treatment<\/strong> could significantly reduce mortality, gaps between countries and social groups remain decisive factors.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Barriers to early detection<\/h2>\n

Salvador Gonz\u00e1lez Santiesteban, an oncologist with the Breast Cancer Foundation (FUCAM)<\/strong>, said:<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cAccess to mammography in the general population continues to be one of the main barriers for timely breast cancer detection in Mexico.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\u201cThis limitation is even greater in rural areas, where screening is less accessible and of lower quality compared to cities,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n

He added that access to advanced diagnostic techniques such as immunohistochemistry and biomarkers<\/strong> is both limited and costly<\/strong>, delaying treatment decisions.<\/p>\n

Gonz\u00e1lez also warned that treatment start times vary widely. In regions with greater difficulties, \u201cit can take up to six or eight months,<\/strong>\u201d when the World Health Organization (WHO)<\/strong> recommends no more than 60 days after histological diagnosis.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The inequity extends beyond infrastructure. In Indigenous communities where Spanish is not the main language, he said, \u201cdelivering essential information and ensuring active patient participation in their care are limited.<\/strong>\u201d<\/p>\n

Governance needed to meet the challenge<\/h2>\n

According to PAHO, population-based cancer registries<\/strong> are essential for designing, budgeting and evaluating national plans, but coverage in Latin America has historically been low<\/strong>, hindering outcome measurement and service planning.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn Mexico there is still no general cancer law,\u201d Gonz\u00e1lez said. That gap, he noted, has prompted civil groups to push for a National Plan for Comprehensive Cancer Prevention and Control.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The proposal, he said, would create a National Cancer Registry<\/strong> and a nationwide oncology network<\/strong> to improve patient care and follow-up, underscoring the need for a coordinated strategy among authorities, the private sector, and medical societies.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Breast cancer survivor and activist Alejandra de Cima<\/strong>, founder of Fundaci\u00f3n CIMA<\/strong>, insisted that the foundation of any effective policy is reliable information<\/strong>:<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cTo provide exhaustive data on incidence and mortality and enable prevention and early diagnosis programs.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

She also stressed that the problem is not just the lack of registries but also insufficient health system funding.<\/strong> While the WHO recommends dedicating 6% of GDP<\/strong>, Mexico allocated only 3.03% in 2024.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n

\u201cAdequate resource allocation is needed, but so is medical infrastructure and human resources that meet international standards,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Toward a common cancer agenda<\/h2>\n

PAHO and WHO have repeatedly noted that breast cancer disproportionately affects women in their productive years<\/strong>, with significant economic and social impacts<\/strong> on families and communities.<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cThe most evident inequalities in care in Mexico are access to innovative therapies and the infrastructure needed for a comprehensive approach to the disease,\u201d de Cima said.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s why it is essential to decentralize oncology services and strengthen the care network across different regions of the country.\u201d<\/p>\n

The challenge, experts conclude, is ensuring that successful local experiences translate into sustainable, measurable national policies<\/strong> to reduce inequalities and meet WHO\u2019s global 2040 target.<\/strong><\/p>\n

This analysis is part of the virtual forum \u201cAdvancing the patient journey: innovative therapeutic approaches for breast cancer,\u201d<\/strong> to be held Oct. 9 and organized by EFE<\/strong> with the support of AstraZeneca. <\/strong>EFE<\/p>\n

EFE received support from AstraZeneca for the dissemination of this content.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mexico City, Oct 6 (EFE).\u2013 Latin America and the Caribbean face sharp inequalities in access to breast cancer care, along with limited resources to confront the disease. Breast cancer is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":198164071,"featured_media":187329,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[123780],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-187328","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nBreast cancer care in Latin America hampered by inequality, lack of resources - EFE Comunica<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Latin America faces major inequalities in breast cancer care, with gaps in early detection, treatment delays, and lack of registries. Experts call for stronger governance and investment to meet WHO targets by 2040.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/efecomunica.efe.com\/en\/breast-cancer-care-in-latin-america-hampered-by-inequality-lack-of-resources\/\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Breast cancer care in Latin America hampered by inequality, lack of resources - EFE Comunica","description":"Latin America faces major inequalities in breast cancer care, with gaps in early detection, treatment delays, and lack of registries. Experts call for stronger governance and investment to meet WHO targets by 2040.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/efecomunica.efe.com\/en\/breast-cancer-care-in-latin-america-hampered-by-inequality-lack-of-resources\/","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/efecomunica.efe.com\/en\/breast-cancer-care-in-latin-america-hampered-by-inequality-lack-of-resources\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/efecomunica.efe.com\/en\/breast-cancer-care-in-latin-america-hampered-by-inequality-lack-of-resources\/"},"author":{"name":"EFE","@id":"https:\/\/efecomunica.efe.com\/#\/schema\/person\/38c335f1ce4cd42430576ef5499343b8"},"headline":"Breast cancer care in Latin America hampered by inequality, lack of resources","datePublished":"2025-10-06T17:20:44+00:00","dateModified":"2025-10-06T17:39:36+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/efecomunica.efe.com\/en\/breast-cancer-care-in-latin-america-hampered-by-inequality-lack-of-resources\/"},"wordCount":591,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/efecomunica.efe.com\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/efecomunica.efe.com\/en\/breast-cancer-care-in-latin-america-hampered-by-inequality-lack-of-resources\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/efecomunica.efe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/rss-efec16cd9fa8881c2555f5ef26f2a9da0c190ca331cw.jpg","articleSection":["Health"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/efecomunica.efe.com\/en\/breast-cancer-care-in-latin-america-hampered-by-inequality-lack-of-resources\/","url":"https:\/\/efecomunica.efe.com\/en\/breast-cancer-care-in-latin-america-hampered-by-inequality-lack-of-resources\/","name":"Breast cancer care in Latin America hampered by inequality, lack of resources - EFE Comunica","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/efecomunica.efe.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/efecomunica.efe.com\/en\/breast-cancer-care-in-latin-america-hampered-by-inequality-lack-of-resources\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/efecomunica.efe.com\/en\/breast-cancer-care-in-latin-america-hampered-by-inequality-lack-of-resources\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/efecomunica.efe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/rss-efec16cd9fa8881c2555f5ef26f2a9da0c190ca331cw.jpg","datePublished":"2025-10-06T17:20:44+00:00","dateModified":"2025-10-06T17:39:36+00:00","description":"Latin America faces major inequalities in breast cancer care, with gaps in early detection, treatment delays, and lack of registries. Experts call for stronger governance and investment to meet WHO targets by 2040.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/efecomunica.efe.com\/en\/breast-cancer-care-in-latin-america-hampered-by-inequality-lack-of-resources\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/efecomunica.efe.com\/en\/breast-cancer-care-in-latin-america-hampered-by-inequality-lack-of-resources\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/efecomunica.efe.com\/en\/breast-cancer-care-in-latin-america-hampered-by-inequality-lack-of-resources\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/efecomunica.efe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/rss-efec16cd9fa8881c2555f5ef26f2a9da0c190ca331cw.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/efecomunica.efe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/rss-efec16cd9fa8881c2555f5ef26f2a9da0c190ca331cw.jpg","width":1920,"height":1280,"caption":"File photo dated Oct. 19, 2023, showing people attending an event for International Breast Cancer Awareness Day at the Obelisk in Plaza Francia de Altamira, in Caracas, Venezuela. EFE\/ Rayner Pe\u00f1a R FILE"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/efecomunica.efe.com\/en\/breast-cancer-care-in-latin-america-hampered-by-inequality-lack-of-resources\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Portada","item":"https:\/\/efecomunica.efe.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Breast cancer care in Latin America hampered by inequality, lack of resources"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/efecomunica.efe.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/efecomunica.efe.com\/","name":"EFE Comunica","description":"Contenidos para empresas","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/efecomunica.efe.com\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/efecomunica.efe.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/efecomunica.efe.com\/#organization","name":"EFE Comunica","url":"https:\/\/efecomunica.efe.com\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/efecomunica.efe.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/efecomunica.efe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Logo-EFE-Comunica_png.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/efecomunica.efe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Logo-EFE-Comunica_png.png","width":1080,"height":486,"caption":"EFE Comunica"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/efecomunica.efe.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/EFEComunicaAgenciaEFE","https:\/\/x.com\/EFEcomunica","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/showcase\/efecomunica"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/efecomunica.efe.com\/#\/schema\/person\/38c335f1ce4cd42430576ef5499343b8","name":"EFE","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e5fcf26bedbd04dc20896c519164a13fe69c6913f5830d7db51543fa04eb30b4?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e5fcf26bedbd04dc20896c519164a13fe69c6913f5830d7db51543fa04eb30b4?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e5fcf26bedbd04dc20896c519164a13fe69c6913f5830d7db51543fa04eb30b4?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","caption":"EFE"},"sameAs":["http:\/\/efe.com"],"url":"https:\/\/efecomunica.efe.com\/en\/author\/efedesarrollo\/"}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/efecomunica.efe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/rss-efec16cd9fa8881c2555f5ef26f2a9da0c190ca331cw.jpg","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pcEg1r-MJq","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/efecomunica.efe.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187328","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/efecomunica.efe.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/efecomunica.efe.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/efecomunica.efe.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/198164071"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/efecomunica.efe.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=187328"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/efecomunica.efe.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187328\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":187335,"href":"https:\/\/efecomunica.efe.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187328\/revisions\/187335"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/efecomunica.efe.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/187329"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/efecomunica.efe.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=187328"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/efecomunica.efe.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=187328"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/efecomunica.efe.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=187328"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}