TEHRAN – A Health Ministry official says breast cancer accounts for 24 percent of 10 common malignancies among Iranian women, the Fars news agency reported.

Kourosh Etemad, director of the non-communicable diseases at the Health Ministry, also said skin cancer comes second after breast cancer among women in Iran.
He said late first child birth, early menarche and late menopause are the main causes of breast cancer.
However, family history and repeated mammography may cause breast cancer.
Speaking at symposium on medical ethics on Thursday, Etamad said it was first thought that cancer was merely common among citizens in developed countries and this led to a neglect of the issue by authorities and they woke up after they faced a serious crisis.
During the year 2008 there were 12.4 million new cases of cancer patients in the world of whom 7.6 million died, he said, adding of these numbers 50 percent were from developing countries.
He said the rate of cancer is going up in different countries as people age more. He also cited smoking, alcohol consumption, environmental carcinogens, physical inactivity, and unhealthy food as among factors causing cancer.
However, he said certain cases of blood cancers are not registered as they are diagnosed and treated by hematologists and pathologists.