Breast Cancer awareness Day
Aug 25, 2025
Michigan
Breast cancer is the most common cancer in Nigerian women. In GLOBOCAN 2022, Nigeria was estimated to have 32,278 new female breast cancer cases and 16,332 deaths, with an age-standardized incidence rate of 51.5 per 100,000 women and mortality rate of 26.2 per 100,000 women.
Keypoints
For southeast Nigeria, the best available evidence is mostly hospital-based, not a complete regional cancer registry, so the numbers are less precise than national estimates. Across studies from Enugu, Imo, Abakaliki, and Nnewi, the pattern is consistent: many patients present late, often with stage III or IV disease, which worsens outcomes. In an Abakaliki study, 78.8% of 132 breast cancer patients presented with advanced disease. In Enugu, 45.3% of patients delayed more than 3 months before first presentation, and 73.4% had more than 3 months’ delay after first hospital contact before reaching definitive treatment.
Outcomes
Outcomes in Nigeria are strongly linked to stage and access to full treatment. A 2023 systematic review found overall survival estimates of about 80% at 1 year, 43% at 2 years, and 32% at 5 years nationally, with better survival in early-stage disease and in patients who received multimodality therapy. One Nigerian institutional study reported 5-year survival of 43.6%, with 78.6% survival for stage I/II versus 33.3% for stage III or higher.
Bottom line for southeast Nigeria:
The picture in southeast Nigeria is:
• breast cancer is common and serious
• patients often present younger and later
• treatment usually relies on mastectomy + chemotherapy, with radiotherapy and targeted drugs less consistently accessible
• the biggest reasons for poor outcomes are late diagnosis, treatment delays, and cost