globally nationally and locally the figures for breast cancer are alarming as the most common carcinoma the present statistics for the disease in india stand at 1 in 12 with the incidence in goa on the higher side however as october the breast cancer month just ended doctors across the board are choosing to focus on a different statistic that of a nearly 100 cure rate if detected earlybreast cancer is no more dangerous than diabetes the key to beating the disease is early detection and immediate treatment says head of oncology department at manipal hospital dr shekhar salkar oncosurgeon at the hospital dr eugene rent states that if caught in the first two stages the disease has a better cure rate of above 90 this drops to 6065 for stage 3 becoming rarely curable in stage 4 rent saysaccording to a study at john hopkins medical institute in the usa 40 of breast cancers in the country are detected by women during a routine breast selfexamination thus selfexamination is mandatory for every woman today experts state that women especially indian women should start practising it as early as 20 years of ageunderstanding the diseasebreast cancer is hormone related and consequent of oestrogen levels in the body on account of this doctors have reasoned that it is the longer life expectancy urban lifestyles late marriages delayed childbearing and fewer children that are upping the riskthe urbanrural statistics of india reflect the consequence of lifestyle choices where one in 12 urban women will suffer from breast cancer in their lifetime the rural figures are a more heartening 1 in 55 says salkar he however promptly points out that these are not concrete figures as data maintenance is not really that efficientwhen we talk about oestrogenrelated breast cancer we are talking about the diseases relation with age where it is seen in women aged 55 and above says oncosurgeon from margao dr jeanlouis de menezes this risk category has developed as the combined effect of new lifestyles and increased lifespans he saysrent explains the relation between the disease and hormone from the onset of the menstrual cycle to its end and even thereafter women are exposed to high levels of oestrogen however in the natural scheme of things pregnancy and breastfeeding act as protective measures by decreasing oestrogen levelsif earlier the incidence of the disease was low it could be attributed to the fact that women married earlier had many children and breastfed at least for a year if not two like still seen in rural india he saysto all of this logic salkar says that in the end it is only in 40 of the cases that doctors know why the disease manifested in a particular person sometimes they do everything right and yet get breast cancerchanging demographywhat dr sharmila sardesai correia trustee muskaan support group for cancer patients says next puts salkars words in perspective cancer of any type is one of the downsides of increased life expectancy which means