Some 1,497 breast cancer cases were reported in a single year Kingdom-wide, 50 percent of which were in the late stages, local media said quoting medical sources.

The announcement of these breast cancer figures coincides with the launch of the national awareness program on breast cancer, which kicked off in Jeddah on Thursday.

The event, which comes under the slogan “the Kingdom is rosy,” will be organized by the Cancer Society in the Eastern Region, the Sheikh Mohamed Hussien Al-Amoudi Center of Excellence in Breast Cancer, Health Directorate, and Roche Program for Awareness of Doctors and Cancer Patients.

Fatima Al-Milhim, head of the Early Detection Committee at the Saudi Cancer Society, said awareness campaigns in the last few years have contributed to enlightening women and society in general on the importance of early detection of the disease which, in turn, saved thousands of cases due to the discovery of the disease in its early stages.

For her part, Samiya Al-Amoudi, executive director of the Sheikh Mohamed Hussien Al-Amoudi Center of Excellence in Breast Cancer at King Abdulaziz University and supervisor of the campaign in the Jeddah Province, said one in eight women is subject to breast cancer.