The Global Breast Cancer Initiative
Empowering women, building capacity, providing care for all
WHO / B. Anderson
New global breast cancer initiative
New global breast cancer initiative
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Credits
Technical information
Breast cancer is the most common cancer worldwide and leading cause of cancer death among women disproportionately affecting individuals in low- and middle-income countries. The 5-year survival rates in high-income countries exceeds 90%, compared with 66% in India and 40% in South Africa.
Bridging inequities in breast cancer outcomes requires systematic improvements in access to resource-appropriate and quality services. The World Health Organization’s Global Breast Cancer Initiative (GBCI), established in 2021, brings together stakeholders from around the world and across sectors with the shared goal of reducing breast cancer by 2.5% per year, which over a 20-year period would save 2.5 million lives.
GBCI employs 3 key strategies to achieve these objectives: health promotion and early detection; timely diagnosis; and comprehensive breast cancer management.
WHO’s GBCI provides guidance to governments across the world on ways to strengthen systems for detecting, diagnosing and treating breast cancer.
Fact sheet
Community of practice
Join the GBCI Community of Practice on the WHO Knowledge Action Portal
Global breast cancer initiative guiding documents
7 March 2023
Global breast cancer initiative implementation framework: assessing, strengthening and scaling up of...
Breast cancer is the most common cancer worldwide and the leading cause of cancer deaths among women, disproportionately affecting low- and middle-income...
3 February 2023
Global breast cancer initiative implementation framework: assessing, strengthening and scaling up of...
Breast cancer is the most common cancer worldwide and the leading cause of cancer deaths among women, disproportionately affecting low- and middle-income...
11 October 2024
Patient navigation for early detection, diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer: technical brief
Patient navigation is an evidence-based personalised intervention designed to guide patients through often complex cancer care systems to receive timely...
30 June 2022
The Global Breast Cancer Initiative (GBCI)
The Global Breast Cancer Initiative, established by WHO in 2021, will provide guidance to governments on health systems strengthening for breast cancer....
Publications
22 March 2024
WHO global survey on the inclusion of cancer care in health-benefit packages, 2020–2021
The survey results provide an understanding of the landscape of the inclusion of cancer care along the path to universal health coverage (UHC). This survey...
Essential medicines are those that satisfy the priority health care needs of a population. They are selected with due regard to disease prevalence and...
1 February 2022
A short guide to cancer screening: increase effectiveness, maximize benefits and minimize harm
The purpose of cancer screening tests is to detect pre-cancer or early-stage cancer in asymptomatic individuals so that timely diagnosis and early treatment...
6 February 2020
Screening programmes: a short guide. Increase effectiveness, maximize benefits and minimize harm
The purpose of screening is to identify people in an apparently healthy population who are at higher risk of a health problem or a condition, so that an...
17 February 2017
WHO list of priority medical devices for cancer management
This publication is based on the list of clinical interventions selected from clinical guidelines on prevention, screening, diagnosis, treatment, palliative...
16 February 2017
Guide to cancer early diagnosis
Detecting cancer early can effectively reduce the mortality associated with cancer. In resource-poor settings, cancer is often diagnosed at a late-stage...
1 January 2014
WHO position paper on mammography screening
Every year, breast cancer kills more than 500 000 women around the world. In resource–poor settings, a majority of women with breast cancer...
Events
Video
Social Media Tiles for Breast Cancer Awareness Month October 2024
