Background: Breast cancer is the most frequent cancer among women and the most frequent cause of cancerdeath in women in both developing and developed countries. However, little is known about the situation inCambodian women living in Cambodia. Objectives: To describe the different histological types of invasive breastcancer, their frequency, grade and stage and their surgical management in Cambodia. Materials and Methods: Aretrospective study of female breast primary invasive malignant lesions processed during 2003 and 2004 in thepathology laboratory of the ‘Institut Pasteur du Cambodge’, in Phnom Penh, was carried out with conventionalhistology techniques. Results: A total of 102 patients were included, with an average age of 47. Most specimenswere tumour excisions or mastectomies. Tumours were generally large (37.5 % at least T3), distributed intocarcinomas (94.2 %), phyllodes tumours (3.9 %) and lymphomas (1.9 %). Most cases of carcinoma presented withhistological grade III (76.6%) and were invasive ductal (82.3%) or medullary (11.4%) in type. Lymphadenectomywas not systematic but nodal metastases were observed in 26 of 31 (83.9%). Conclusions: Late diagnosis ofthe disease is due to absence of systematic breast cancer screening and awareness. Apparent rarity of lobularcarcinoma and over frequency of medullary carcinoma and phyllodes tumours should be confirmed on a largerseries of patients using immunohistochemistry. Its use for other markers to help oncologists to decide whetheranti-hormone treatment is indicated is also recommended, together with more standardized surgery.
)