Clinico-morphological profile and receptor status in breast cancer patients in a South Indian institution.

BACKGROUND Breast cancer is the most common malignancy in women worldwide and the second most common cancer in females in India. Receptor status may be important for survival. OBJECTIVE To analyse and correlate the clinical and morphological parameters with receptor status in breast carcinoma patients in a tertiary care institution in Southern India. MATERIALS AND METHODS This retrospective study involved 320 patients of breast cancer diagnosed in an oncology hospital over a period of 31/2 years. Data was analysed using SPSS Version 21. RESULTS Some 60.6% patients with breast carcinomas belonged to the age group of 40 to 60 years. The most common histological type was infiltrating ductal carcinoma, not otherwise specified, accounting for 84.4% of patients. On immunohistochemistry, estrogen receptor (ER) and progesterone receptor (PR) were expressed in 56.3% and 53.1% of cases, respectively. CONCLUSIONS Breast cancers in India, a developing country, occur in younger women and tend to be more aggressive with lower rates of ER and PR expression and higher histological tumor grades. Both ER and PR status of the tumors had significant associations with the patient age, pathological TNM stage and histological tumor grade.