A retrospective study of female breast cancer: Stage and age correlation

Abstract

Background: With 1 million new cases in the world each year, breast cancer is the commonest malignancy in women and comprises 18% of all female cancers. At present carcinoma breast is the leading cancer in India and is competing cancer cervix in incidence. Epidemiological studies at regional and global levels suggest the occurrence of carcinoma breast at a younger, premenopausal age in Indian and Asian women as compared with western women. Knowledge of this factor emphasizes the need to modify the timing of modalities of detection of early carcinoma and its management. According to literature, majority of carcinoma breast cases in the western countries present in Stages I and II of the disease whereas in India majority cases present in Stage III of the disease. The objective of this study is to observe and study age correlation with female breast cancer.

Methods: A retrospective study was conducted in 267 patients of histopathologically confirmed breast cancer.

Results: Mean age of subjects was 44.34±8.55 years. Age distribution showed peaks at 41-50 years with 134patients.This study shows that 71.90% of the total patients were having advanced carcinoma breast (Stage III, IV) and 73.7% of these patients were below 50 years of age.

Conclusions: Breast cancer is increasingly occurring in younger age groups in India when compared with western countries and a more aggressive nature of the disease strikes in their reproductive period suggesting the need for change in modalities of early cancer detection and adjusting preventive and therapeutic efforts.