Abstract

Background- Among females, breast cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer and the leading cause of cancer death.
Objective- To study the pattern of breast cancer among low socioeconomic status patients attending a tertiary care hospital (Government medical college, Amritsar).
Materials and methods- A retrospective study was conducted in the department in which data was analysed in terms of demographical profile, stage of presentation, risk factors, histologic type and management strategies.
Results- A total of 1706 patients were studied in the study in ten year period. These were mostly poor and of low socioeconomic status who completed the treatment under Chief Minister Cancer Relief Fund (CMCRF) scheme. The mean age at diagnosis was 50.57+/-10years. Majority of patients were in age group 50-59 years (551 with 32.29%) and 40-49years (531 with 31.12%). Left sided breast carcinoma patients were more in number 913(53.51%) versus right sided as 791(46.36%). 936(54.86%) patients were from urban and 770(45.13%) patients were from rural areas. Male breast cancer patients were 17(1%), among females maximum number i.e.857 (50.23%) presented as postmenopausal followed by 511(29.95%) as perimenopausal followed by 321(18.81%) as premenopausal women. Infiltrating ductal carcinoma is the most common histopathology with 90.62%. Luminal type A comprises 45.72% subtype then 36.10% with Basal subtype followed by 11.43% with Her2neu enriched and 6.74% with Luminal type B subtype. There were 256(15%) patients in whom recurrence or progression of disease occurred.
Conclusion- In this study, breast cancer trend is rising with time and more patients presented in late and advanced stages mostly due to lack of awareness, so we conclude that public health education for early detection of breast carcinoma is necessary and at the same time government schemes like CMCRF helps in bringing more and more patients for free treatment to the government hospitals and thus giving them a chance for good survival.