Shahida Tasneem, Farida Naseer, Safoora Shahid, Shagufta Nasreen, Mah Muneer Khan, Nabila Javed.
A study of prognostic markers and stage of presentation of breast cancer in southern region of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan.
J Med Sci Jan ;20(2):63-6.

Objective: To study prognostic markers and stage of breast cancer and their correlation, in patients of southern region of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP). Material and Methods: This study was done by retrospectively analyzing the data of all newly diagnosed patients of breast cancer registered from January 2006 till December 2008 at the Institute of Radiotherapy & Nuclear Medicine, Peshawar (IRNUM). Results: There were 1358 new cases of primary breast cancer during the study period. The age range in these cases was 18-90 years with the median age group being in the 5th decade. From the available record of 933 cases, only 13.8% patients had grade I, 45.4% had grade II & 40.7% had grade III disease. Tumor size was documented in 923 cases. Among them, 42.45% had a T3, 31.04% had a T2, and 3.3% had a T1 tumor. Stage of disease was documented in 1132 cases, of whom 38.8% had stage III, 33.7% had stage II, and 24.9% had stage IV disease. Only 2.7% were in stage I. Conclusion: Patients with advanced stage of breast cancer have tumors of larger size and higher grade with extensive lymph node involvement. The majority of breast cancer patients in southern region of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa present with advanced disease. This translates into poor prognosis and outcome.

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