Shanghai Launches National Project for Breast Cancer Prevention and Control

China has started a national project to create a standard breast cancer database and an AI system for better prevention, aiming to address specific challenges related to breast cancer in the population and improve the management of chronic diseases.

The project will create the first cloud-based, shareable multimodal breast cancer database, integrating clinical diagnosis, imaging pathology, genetic testing, lifestyle, and long-term environmental exposure data.

Using the new BMU-Net AI risk stratification system, which accurately predicts 90.1 percent of the time, the project will create a thorough system for better prevention and early treatment of breast cancer in Chinese women, shifting from reacting to health issues to actively preventing them.

This initiative is a critical move to implement China's national major chronic disease prevention and control strategy. It aims to fill the long-standing gap of lacking China-specific population research data, breaking the reliance on foreign prevention and screening models.

The 2025 statistics from China's National Cancer Center show the country's annual new breast cancer cases will exceed 420,000. The median diagnosis age is 47, 10 years younger than that in the United States, with 20 percent of patients under 40.

Meanwhile, the screening coverage for women aged 35-64 is only 30.9 percent, far below the 75.9 percent rate of US women aged 50-74.

Early detection makes breast cancer manageable. China has an 83 percent five-year breast cancer survival rate and over 90 percent for early-stage cases.

The new multi-modal database will cover diverse regions, urban-rural areas, and ethnic groups across China, enabling accurate risk assessment and personalized screening for women nationwide, according to project leader Dr Hu Xichun from Fudan University Shanghai Cancer Center.

The project uses Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou, and other national medical centers as core demonstration zones to pioneer the "medical-prevention integration" model, collaborative research networks in northeast, northwest, and east China, and special cohorts in ethnic minority areas like the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and Xinjiang to study the effects of unique genetic and environmental factors on breast cancer.

The team will focus on four core tasks: perfecting the multi-modal database, developing targeted risk assessment models, verifying strategies via clinical trials, and formulating graded intervention plans.

Dr Wang Hongxia of the cancer center noted that the project will build a self-iterating national "digital prevention and control brain," forming a closed-loop intelligent system of "data-algorithm-decision-making."

It will provide standardized, personalized screening guidance for grassroots medical institutions.

It has assembled top clinical, public health, and AI experts nationwide and formed an expert advisory committee to oversee implementation. It will also lower China's breast cancer rates and mortality and provide a "China model" for global prevention and control.