Spectrum of Breast Cancer in Asian Women

Abstract

The inadequacies of health care infrastructures and standards, sociocultural barriers, economic realities, illiteracy, and the differences in the clinical and pathological attributes of this disease in Asian women compared with the rest of the world together result in a different spectrum of the disease. Better socioeconomic conditions, health awareness, and availability of breast cancer screening in developed Asian countries seem to be the major causes of a favorable clinical picture and outcomes in these countries.

Trends in Epidemiology, Clinical and Histopathological Characteristics of Breast Cancer in Iran: Results of a 17 Year Study

“…The majority of our cases (33.18%) had 41-50 years. This 10 years earlier peak incidence age for Iranian women is different from developed countries (Parkin and Fernandez, 2006;Smigal et al, 2006) but resembles to developing nations (Agarwal et al, 2007) and corresponds with other studies done in Iran (Mousavi et al, 2007;2008;Harirchi et al, 2011). Some biomarker studies and clinical data point that lateonset BC is biologically less aggressive with a slower growth than early-onset (Fisher et al, 1997;Benz, 2008).…”

“…BC is the top cancer in women worldwide and is increasing specially in developing countries, where most of cases are diagnosed in late stages (Agarwal et al, 2007;Mousavi et al, 2008), a finding that is indicated in the current study, as well. Rate of increasing BC in developing countries is reported as 3-4% (Parkin et al, 2001).…”

“…In the developing world, the increasing trend of disease is worrying which might be attributed to increased life expectancy, changes in lifestyle and urbanization, associated with higher BC risk (Parkin and Fernandez., 2006;Porter., 2009). The incidence of BC among young Asian women is moderate but is increasing and may be more than two fold higher than western countries (Agarwal et al, 2007;Karihtala et al, 2010). Previous studies showed that BC has become the most 6906 on the recent changes in age distribution for primary and secondary prevention of BC (Mousavi et al, 2008;Harirchi et al, 2010).…”

Clinicopathological Characteristics of Triple Negative Breast Cancer at a Tertiary Care Hospital in India

“…With rising incidence and awareness, breast cancer is the commonest cancer in urban Indian females (Takiar and Vijay, 2010) and the second commonest in the rural Indian women (HBCR, 2001). Over 100,000 new breast cancer patients are estimated to be diagnosed annually in India (Nandakumar et al, 1995;Agarwal et al, 2007). With a rising trend in incidence reported from various registries of National Cancer Registry Programme, presently India has become a country with the largest estimated number of breast cancer deaths worldwide (PBCR, 2001, Nandakumar et al, 2005.…”

Risk of Treatment Related Death and Febrile Neutropaenia with First Line Palliative Chemotherapy for De Novo Metastatic Breast Cancer in Clinical Practice in a Middle Resource Country

“…However, data from Asian countries suggest the rate to be much higher, approaching 10% to 25% (Chopra et al, 2001;Tan et al, 2005;Yip et al, 2006;Lim et al, 2007). In addition, Asian patients present with larger metastatic tumours and often involve multiple metastatic sites (Agarwal et al, 2007). The median survival of de novo metastatic breast cancer (MBC) is unknown as most reported studies included patients who developed metastatic disease after initial treatment for early breast cancer.…”