Epidemiology of Breast Cancer:A Case Series

Background: Breast cancer is the most frequent cancer in women and represents the second leading cause of cancer death among women (after lung cancer).The proportion of breast cancer is rising in India. Incidence rates are high in more developed countries, whereas rates are lower in less developed countries but increasing.

Aim: This is a retrospective study of 90 breast cancer patients less than 70 years of age treated in a single center from April 2018 to April 2019. The aim is to assess the known risk factors that modulate the development of breast cancer.

Materials and Method: Data were collected from medical records. Variables such as age, parity, breast feeding, body mass index (BMI), family history and usage of oral contraceptive pills (OCP) were analyzed in relation to outcome. All data were recorded in MS Excel sheet.

Results: Maximum number of cases (58.8.4%) belonged to age group of ≥50 yrs. Maximum number of cases falls under lower parity/nulliparity. There was no data in the records on duration of breast feeding, to determine its association with breast cancer. Postmenopausal women (37 cases) with increased BMI is evident to show its risk. Most of the cases (80%) didn’t have positive family history. 93.3% of cases not associated with intake of OCP.

Conclusion: Increase in age contributes to maximum number of cases. Parity & Breast feeding is inversely proportional to breast cancer. In postmenopausal age group, BMI is increased. Positive family history is present in few cases, which shown familial breast cancer accounts less than of all breast cancer cases. Intake of OCP shows no association with breast cancer. This study has several limitations of being a descriptive study & it described only the collected data.