Female breast cancer rate
The most common cancer to affect women in Aotearoa is breast cancer (with around 3,500 new cases a year). Rates of breast cancer have increased slightly over the past 20 years for both wāhine Māori and non-Māori women.Female Breast Cancer
The most common cancer to affect women in Aotearoa is breast cancer (with around 3,500 new cases a year).
Rates of breast cancer have increased slightly over the past 20 years for both wāhine Māori and non-Māori women. There are probably multiple causes for this trend, including increased exposure to factors associated with breast cancer (for example, rising rates of obesity). However, the increase may also reflect the expansion of the inclusion age for the national breast screening programme in 2004 (originally offered to women aged 50–64 years and expanded to 45–69 years), which has led to an increase in the detection of breast cancer among those newly included age groups.
Technical note
Figures showing changes over time were taken from the Manatū Hauora - Ministry of Health’s Historical summary of cancer registrations and deaths.
Rate data are age-standardised to the World Health Organisation (WHO) world standard population.
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