FIVE YEAR SURVIVAL IN PATIENTS WITH BREAST CANCER A STUDY CARRIED AT THE ONCOLOGY CENTER OF BASRAH

Objectives: The aim of this work was to determine the five years survival of patients with breast cancer attending the Oncology Center of Basrah between October 1999 and December 2001. Methods: Three hundred eight patients attending the Oncology Center for registration and treatment during the years 19992001 were studied and the status of each whether alive or dead was ascertained after one year and five years. Result: Among 308 patients, 5 were males, 68.16% were in advanced stage (i.e. stage 2-4) and 5 years survival was (25.24 %). Conclusion: Five years survival of breast cancer in Basrah is low. This needs the adoption of wide scale screening program to help early detection and to review the care and modalities of treatment to improve the outcome. INTRODUCTION reast cancer is the most common cancer in woman in United States and is the most common cause of death from cancer in woman worldwide. Its incidence rate is high in the more developed and industrialized countries, but less in African and Asian countries. The incidence rate in Western countries is >100/1 and in Asian countries the incidence rate is between 10-15/1. In Basrah, breast cancer constitutes one third of all cancers in woman with incidence rate of 13.1/1 women. The annual mortality rate of breast cancer in Basrah in 2005 is 3.2 per 1, whereas in Mosul, the incidence rate of breast cancer is 12.5 /1 and the death rate is 6/1. The above result of incidence rate looks low when compared to the incidence rate of Western countries. This is attributed in part to improper registration and the lower risk profile in Basrah. The life time risk for female breast cancer in USA, ranges between 1:252 at the age of 30-45 years and 1: 8 at the age of 110 years. Premenapausal breast cancer rates are similar in Asian and western countries. A number of factors are known to increase the risk of breast cancer such as: female sex, increasing age, early menarche, late menopause, obesity, postmenapausal hormonal therapy, benign proliferative breast disease, ionizing radiation, lastly germ line mutation such as BRCA1, BRCA2, P35 and PTEN. [7,8] METHODS Medical records of patients with breast cancer registered and treated in Oncology Center of Basrah during the years 1999, 2000 and 2001 were retrospectively studied and followed for five years. Data including patients age, sex, stage of disease and modality of treatment were observed investigated. Deaths were ascertained through either direct follow up, or from death registration office.