Younger Women are Affected by Breast Cancer in South India - A Hospital-based Descriptive Study

Introduction: Breast cancer is one of the most common cancers in the world among women and its effectivecontrol depends upon sufficient knowledge about its epidemiology at the regional as well as global levels.Materials and methods: A record based descriptive study was conducted in a tertiary care hospital situated incoastal Karnataka in South India. Cases included were all histopathologically diagnosed cases of breast cancernot otherwise specified among females that were treated in the hospital in the 3 years period of 2005-2007. A totalof 112 cases were found and their data retrieved and analyzed using SPSS.
Results: Mean age of the subjectswas 45 years (SD=10.4) (range 23 -70). Age distribution showed two peaks at 35-39 years and 50-54 years. Some12 (11%) patients had a previous history of breast cancer and 9 (8%) had a family history. Among the patientswho had history of breast cancer in the past, 61.5% were during the pre-menopausal age.
Conclusion: Theage affected by breast cancer was lower than usually seen in other parts of the world and there was more ofpremenopausal occurrence which has implications on their own and their relatives’ chances of acquiring breastcancer later. The findings show that breast cancer control efforts and recommendations in different parts of theworld have to be tailored to the regional epidemiological patterns.