epidemiology and survival analysis of jordanian female breast cancer patients diagnosed from 1997 to 2002

background : breast cancer is the most common cancer among jordanian women, yet survival data are scarce. this study aims to assess the observed five-year survival rate of breast cancer in jordan from 1997 to 2002 and to determine factors that may influence survival. methods : data were obtained from the jordan cancer registry (jcr), which is a population-based registry. from 1997-2002, 2121 patients diagnosed with breast cancer were registered in jcr. relevant data were collected from jcr files, hospital medical records and histopathology reports. patient's status, whether alive or dead, was ascertained from the department of civil status using patients’ national numbers (id). statistical analysis was carried out using spss (version 10). survival probabilities by age, morphology, grade, stage and other relevant variables were obtained with the kaplan meier method. results : the overall five-year survival for breast cancer in jordan, regardless of the stage or grade was 64.2%, meanwhile it was 58% in the group aged less than 30 years. the best survival was in the age group 40-49 years (69.3%). the survival for adenocarcinoma was 57.4% and for medullary carcinoma, it was 82%. the survival rate approximated 73.8% for well-differentiated, 55.6% for anaplastic, and 58% for poorly differentiated cancers. the five-year survival rate was 82.7% for stage i, 72.2% for stage ii, 58.7% for stage iii, and 34.6% for stage iv cancers. conclusion : according to univariate analysis, stage, grade, age and laterality of breast cancer significantly influenced cancer survival. cox regression analysis revealed that stage, grade and age factors correlated with prognosis, while laterality showed no significant effect on survival. results demonstrated that overall survival was relatively poor. we hypothesized that this was due to low levels of awareness and lack of screening programs.