Professor John Boyages made a statement saying that Australia and the UK managed to be the world’s leaders in the field of breast cancer and in reducing the mortality rates of breast cancer by more than 35% in both the countries, in less than two decades.

Professor Boyages is a cancer diagnosis and treatment specialist who has worked in that domain for more than 25 years. He is currently teaching at hospitals in the UK, while maintaining a fixed position at Westmead Hospital's breast cancer centre, in Sydney.

Professor Boyages said, "For most people, their lives do stop when breast cancer is diagnosed - it's like a mountain has dropped in the middle of your road”.

UK and Australia, according to the Professor’s statement, were the first two countries to introduce the screening programs that helped in the early detection of the cancer cells, and therefore, led to the rise in the number of survivors.

In Australia, breast cancer was the cause behind 21 deaths in every 100,000 women, during the year 1989, whereas by the year 2005, this number dropped to less than 14 deaths, among the same number of women.

In the UK, the mortality rate decreased from 29 deaths per 100,000 women in 1989, to 18 in 2005.