Abstract
The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) target a one-third reduction in non-communicable disease (NCD) mortality between the years 2015 and 2030. Cancer accounts for 22% of NCD deaths, and breast cancer is the leading global cause of female cancer mortality, despite its high survivability. Therefore, reducing female breast cancer mortality is critical to any nation’s achievement of this goal. However, sex-based disparities in healthcare are evident in lower-resource settings, and lack of infrastructure for breast cancer control leads to greater underdiagnosis in low- and lower middle-income countries (LICs & LMICs). Mortality may be a biased indicator due to the impact of differing incidence rates. Therefore, the mortality-to-incidence ratio (MIR) was examined as a practical indicator of breast cancer control. We projected mortality and MIR for women with breast cancer in 195 countries to quantify progress in breast cancer control and assess the feasibility of achieving the 2030 NCD mortality target of the SDGs.