Epidemiology and clinical profile of breast cancer in central Nepal: A single institutional experience.

Abstract

e12008 Background: In this study, our objective was to determine the epidemiological and clinical profile of Breast Cancers. Different Literatures have highlighted the correlation between stage and age at diagnosis, size and age at diagnosis, correlations of different hormone receptor status with different age group etc. But precise documentation is lacking in Nepal. Methods: The study was conducted at department of Medical Oncology, Nepal Cancer Hospital and Research Centre from Dec 2014 to June 2016 and 183 patients diagnosed with breast cancer were enrolled. A retrospective cross-sectional study was conducted. Results: Prevalence of Breast Cancer was 5.59 %. Newar was the most affected ethnic group. The most frequent age group was 40 to 49. The most common symptom was mass in 80 % of patients. Stage II (49.1 %) was the most common stage at diagnosis. 83% patients had a tumour size of 2-5 cm with average size of 3.25 cm at presentation. Younger women with cancer had a strong correlation with ER-ve/PR-ve and Her-2/Neu +ve receptor status with P<.005. Triple Negative receptor status was 32.87%. Her2/neu +ve receptor status cancer was 39.72%. Conclusions: Majority of patients presented with Stage IIa and IIIa disease breast cancer. Disease is more aggressive and diagnosed at a more advanced stage in younger women. Younger women had a strong correlation with ER-ve/PR-ve and her-2/neu +ve receptor. Recommendation for the Her-2/Neu receptor test should be done in every case of breast cancer. Triple negative status was lower in comparison to the previous studies which is favourable for hormonal antibody treatment implementation.