Clinicopathologic Profile of Breast Cancer Patients in Pakistan: Ten Years Data of a Local Cancer Hospital

Abstract

Breast cancer is the most frequent cancer of women worldwide, with considerable geographic and racial/ ethnic variation. Data are generally derived from population based cancer registries in the developed countries but hospital data are the most reliable source in the developing countries. Ten years data from 1st Jan 2000 to 31st Dec 2009 of a cancer hospital in Pakistan were here analyzed by descriptive statistics to evaluate the clinicopathologic profile of local breast cancer patients. Among 28,740 cancer patients, 6,718 were registered as breast cancer. The female to male ratio was 100:2. Breast cancer accounted for 23% of all and 41% of female cancers. Some 46% were residents of Lahore, with a mean age of 47±12 years. Less than 1% were at Stage 0 and 10%, 32%, 35% and 23% were at Stage I, II, III and IV respectively. Histopathology was unknown in 4% while 91%, 2% and 1% had invasive ductal carcinoma (IDC), invasive lobular carcinoma (ILC) and mucinous carcinoma respectively. Rare carcinomas accounted for the rest. Tumor grade 1, 2 and 3 was 11%, 55% and 34% among the known. Profile of breast cancer patients in Pakistan follows a pattern similar to that of other developing countries with earlier peak age and advanced disease stage at presentation. The male breast cancer accounts for higher proportion in the local population. Local women have higher frequency of IDC and lower frequency of ILC and DCIS, owing probably to a different risk profile. Use of hospital information systems and establishment of population based cancer registry is required to have accurate and detailed local data. Promotion of breast health awareness and better health care system is required to decrease the burden of advanced disease.

Pathological Profile of Patients with Breast Diseases in Shiraz

“…The findings of the present study in consistent with other studies (Fouladi et al, 2012;Kadivar et al, 2012;Khokher et al, 2012;Afsharfard et al, 2013;Kotepui and Chupeerach, 2013) demonstrated that ductal carcinoma was the most prevalent malignancy in both menopausal and non-menopausal women (97% and 86.2%, respectively) and the rate of malignant masses was higher in menopausal women. This can be justified by the fact that the menopausal women's mean age is normally high and above 50-year-old ages are directly associated with the incidence of breast malignancies in women (Otu, 1990;Jemal et al, 2011).…”

Impact of a Breast Health Awareness Activity on the Knowledge Level of the Participants and its Association with Socio-Demographic Features

“…The knowledge of breast cancer symptoms and practice of breast self examination is inadequate among women living in the developing countries (Ahmed et al, 2006;Karayurt et al, 2008;Kumar et al, 2009;Khokher et al, 2012;Radi 2013;Ranasinghe et al, 2013). However there is evidence of significant improvement with the educational and awareness activities (Gupta et al, 2009).…”

“…Pakistan is a developing country with limited resources and has the highest incidence of breast cancer among the Asian countries, the ASR being 69.1 per 100,000 averaged over the years 1998-2002(Bhurgri et al, 2006. Breast cancer in this region is Samina Khokher 1 *, Muhammad Usman Qureshi 2& , Warda Fatima 3 , Saqib Mahmood 4 , Afaf Saleem 5 characterized by aggressive disease affecting younger age women with late stage presentations (Naeem et al, 2008;Khokher et al, 2012). Awareness campaign through public health education has the potential of raising the knowledge and awareness level of the women for early detection of disease.…”

“…2009; Khokher et al, 2012;Radi 2013;Ranasinghe et al, 2013). There are few articles which report the impact of educational activities on the knowledge and practice of breast self examination (Yavari P and Pourhoseingholi MA., 2007;Gupta et al, 2009;Al-Shammari et al, 2012) and there is a report which assesses the impact of an awareness program on the knowledge level of women by comparing the population exposed to this program with the population not exposed to this program (Mena et al, 2013).…”

Relationship Between the Prohibitin 3' Untranslated Region C > T Gene Polymorphism and Cancer Susceptibility - Results of a Meta-analysis

“…Cancers are the most risk diseases which threaten our health at present, and there is rare indicator for early diagnosis. Breast and ovarian cancers are the most two frequent cancers of women worldwide, and the most lethal gynecological malignancy worldwide (Yip et al, 2006;Yip & Anderson, 2007;Gao et al, 2009;Khokher et al, 2012;Zhang et al, 2012). Early diagnosis and better prognosis of breast and ovarian cancers is still a challenge, and genetic factors have established a role in pathogenesis of breast and ovarian cancers (Yip et al, 2009;Gao et al, 2012;Jeschke et al, 2012;.…”