Younger women are affected by breast cancer in South India - a hospital-based descriptive study.

INTRODUCTION Breast cancer is one of the most common cancers in the world among women and its effective control depends upon sufficient knowledge about its epidemiology at the regional as well as global levels. MATERIALS AND METHODS A record based descriptive study was conducted in a tertiary care hospital situated in coastal Karnataka in South India. Cases included were all histopathologically diagnosed cases of breast cancer not otherwise specified among females that were treated in the hospital in the 3 years period of 2005-2007. A total of 112 cases were found and their data retrieved and analyzed using SPSS. RESULTS Mean age of the subjects was 45 years (SD=10.4) (range 23 -70). Age distribution showed two peaks at 35-39 years and 50-54 years. Some 12 (11%) patients had a previous history of breast cancer and 9 (8%) had a family history. Among the patients who had history of breast cancer in the past, 61.5% were during the pre-menopausal age. CONCLUSION The age affected by breast cancer was lower than usually seen in other parts of the world and there was more of premenopausal occurrence which has implications on their own and their relatives' chances of acquiring breast cancer later. The findings show that breast cancer control efforts and recommendations in different parts of the world have to be tailored to the regional epidemiological patterns.