Early Detection and Prevention of Breast Cancer: The Increasing Importance of Midwives in the Future

Breast cancer (BC) is the most common type of cancer and cause of death from cancer in women in the Republic of Slovenia. As in the majority of other economically and industrially developed countries, the incidence rate of BC is increasing in Slovenia and has reached 111.8 cases per 100,000 women in 2008. The incidence rate of BC has thus shown more than a fivefold increase in the period from 1950 to 2008 and BC was diagnosed in 1,147 women in 2008 (Cancer Registry of Republic of Slovenia, 2010). Similar increases in the incidence rates of BC have in the last decades also been observed in a number of other economically and industrially developed countries with aging female population (Curado et al (Eds.), 2009). However, the incidence rates of the BC are also rapidly increasing in a number of lowand middle-income countries (LMIC) (Forouzanfar et al, 2011), with more than half of all deaths caused by BC globally occurring in these countries (Curado et al (Eds.), 2009; Forouzanfar et al, 2011; International Agency for Research in Cancer, 2008). In LMIC countries, a sizeable proportion of women killed by BC were aged 15-49 years (Forouzanfar et al, 2011).