Battling Breast Cancer

By Richard Stengel, Managing Editor

People in the western world remember the streets of Budapest for the brave stand its people took against the Soviet Union in 1956. On Sept. 29 and 30 the streets of Hungary's capital city were home to an uprising against a very different kind of foe: breast cancer, the subject of this week's cover story.

For years, breast cancer was seen as a disease that predominantly struck white, well-to-do women in the developed world--and the fact is, it did. But the face of breast cancer is changing. The disease is on the march in Asia, Africa, the Middle East and elsewhere, with rates rising dramatically, as much as sevenfold, over the past decade. By 2020, 70% of global breast-cancer cases will occur in the developing world. Part of the reason for the change is better sanitation and control of infectious diseases, which have extended life spans in low- and middle-income countries, allowing women to age into the breast-cancer demographic. Part of it may be the globalization of bad Western habits--fatty diets and lack of exercise, which may contribute to the disease.

In Budapest, the U.S.-based Susan G. Komen for the Cure, an advocacy group with 125 affiliates around the world, convened a conference of doctors, survivors and advocates from 31 countries to map a global plan of action. A quiet march by 5,000 participants across the city's famed Chain Bridge--lit pink for the event--was the solemn coda to the meeting. But months before the Komen event was held, we had mobilized our own global resources to cover this growing health problem. Time's Hong Kong-based correspondent Kathleen Kingsbury, who wrote our cover story, surveyed the state of breast cancer in Japan, China and the rest of Asia. Science editor Jeffrey Kluger reported from Budapest and oversaw the package, and 18 Time reporters in Eastern Europe, Western Europe, Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Middle East filed dispatches to Kingsbury.

It's truly vital that we share what we know about how to detect and treat the disease, especially in the Third World, where resources may be woefully lacking. There are 3.5 million women in the Indian city of Pune, and there is one comprehensive breast-care facility there. In South Africa only 5% of breast cancers are caught in their earliest stage. In the U.S. it's 50%. In Kenya, a woman with the disease may have no hope at all unless she can travel elsewhere for treatment. "You just sit and wait for your death," Mary Onyango, a Kenyan breast-cancer patient, told Time. Her story and those of many others illuminate an alarming tale--but a tale that is, in the end, also one of great hope.

Richard Stengel, Managing Editor