‘Around 945 new breast cancer cases diagnosed in 2011’

AMMAN — Approximately 945 new breast cancer cases were registered in the Kingdom in 2011, including 19 among men, according to a Health Ministry official.

Mohammad Tarawneh, director of the ministry’s noncommunicable diseases directorate, said breast cancer prevalence was still high in the Kingdom, which ranked second regionally along with Bahrain in the prevalence of the disease. 

Lebanon is in the lead.

At an event organised by the Jordan Breast Cancer Programme on Thursday to mark Mother’s Day, Tarawneh said breast cancer constituted 37.8 per cent of all cancer cases among women in Jordan and 20.6 per cent of all cancers (female and male) in 2011.

He noted that the median age at diagnosis for breast cancer among Jordanian women is 51.5 years.

According to official figures, 54 per cent of the cases were among women aged between 40 and 59, 30.8 per cent in the 40- 49 age bracket, and 24.1 per cent among women between 50 and 59.

The prevalence rate in 2011 was 30.6 per 100,000 women, compared to 31.8 per 100,000 in 2010.

Amman registered the highest number of cases, with 59.7 per cent (553) of the total, followed by Irbid Governorate (12.6 per cent — 117 cases) and Zarqa (11.3 per cent — 105 cases). 

Only six cases were registered in Aqaba Governorate, which had lowest number, according to the figures.