prevalence and incidence of premenopausal and postmenopausal breast cancer in iran in 2010

background: we studied the patterns of premenopausal and postmenopausal breast cancer incidence and its established risk factors in iran in 2010. in addition, we estimated the 5-year prevalence of breast cancer in the country. methods: we performed an internet and library literature review. we used national cancer registry data, demographic health surveys, national censuses and world bank data in this study. we used incidence rate and weighted survival rate of breast cancer and estimated five-year prevalence of breast cancer in iran. results: incidence rate of postmenopausal breast cancer varied significantly within country. the highest asr was in tehran province and reached 164.1 per 100000 and the lowest asr (13.9/100000) belonged to sistan & baluchistan. we found significant inverse correlation between postmenopausal breast cancer incidence and family size(r=-0.579, p=0.001), illiteracy ratio (r=-0.703, p<0.0001), and direct correlation for urbanization ratio (r=0.554, p=0.002) and life expectancy(r=0.659, p<0.0001). however one to six month breastfeeding was not significantly correlated with postmenopausal breast cancer incidence. adjusting for the 15% underestimation in the pathology based cancer registry, the estimated number of new breast cancer was about 10,000 and the five-year prevalence was about 40, 0000. conclusion: postmenopausal breast cancer is increasing in iran. we suggest planning for the primary prevention and cost-effective early detection program for breast cancer in iran, particularly for postmenopausal breast cancer which is going to be the main burden in the near future.