Clinico-pathologic manifestations of Iranian patients with breast cancer

Objective: Breast cancer is the most common malignancy in women and is the second cause of cancer death in female population. The objective was to find out different clinical manifestations and epidemiology of breast cancer among various ethnics groups to help improve health system in the country.

Methodology: In this retrospective cross sectional study, we evaluated clinical and pathologic features of one thousand Iranian women with breast cancer. The data including age, type of surgery, pathology report, tumor size, lymph node involvement, tumor stage and receptor status were extracted from medical records and were analyzed.

Results: The highest prevalence of breast cancer was in patients in 40-49 years age group (37.4%). The most common performed surgery was modified radical mastectomy and the most common pathology report was intra-ductal carcinoma. Tumor size was 2-5 cm in most of patients. Sixty percent of patients had lymph node involvement. Finally, 49.1% of patients were diagnosed when they were in stage II and 36.7% were in stage III. In 72.9% of patients, estrogen receptor, progesterone receptor or both receptors were positive and of 116 patients who were checked for Her-2, 27 patients (23.2%) were 3+ positive.

Conclusions: Our findings suggest that Iranian breast cancer patients are relatively younger than patients in western countries and mostly present at higher pathologic stages. We highly recommend screening test to be performed at lower ages (at least 40 years old).