The prevalence of breast cancer in Iranian women: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Background Breast cancer is one of the main causes of women’s death. Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women over the world. Various studies have reported different incidence of breast cancer in women. However, we found no comprehensive study that showed the results of these studies in general, so the present study was conducted aimed to determine the prevalence of breast cancer in Iranian women in a systematic review and meta-analysis study. Methods In this review study, with searching national and international databases of SID, MagIran, IranMedex, IranDoc, Google Scholar, Cochrane, Embase, ScienceDirect, Scopus, PubMed and Web of Science, the data were extracted between 1965 and September 2019. The random effects model was used for analysis, and heterogeneity of studies was investigated using I2 index. The data were analyzed using software Comprehensive Meta-Analysis (version 2). Results The prevalence of breast cancer in Iranian women in 24 papers with a sample size of 39,596 patients was 23.6% (95% CI: 15.3–34.7%). A significant difference was found in the prevalence of breast cancer in Iranian women regarding heterogeneity based on meta-regression, year of study and sample size (P < 0.005). Conclusion The study results show that the prevalence of breast cancer in Iranian women is high. Hence, appropriate solutions should be applied to improve the aforementioned situation, find causes and monitor by providing feedback to hospitals at all levels.