Eight Year Survival among Breast Cancer Malaysian Women from University Kebangsaan Malaysia Medical Centre

Abstract

Survival after diagnosis of cancer is one of the major outcome measurements and a key criterion for assessingquality of cancer control related to both the preventive and the therapeutic level. The purpose of this study wasto determine the 8-year survival time in Malaysia based on socio-demographic and clinical characteristics. Aretrospective study of 472 Malaysian women with breast cancer from the Medical Record Department at UniversitiKebangsaan Malaysia Medical Centre (UKMMC) was therefore performed with survival analysis carried outusing the Kaplan-Meier with log-rank test for univariate analysis and Cox-regression for multivariate analysis.Women who had cancer or family history of cancer had a longer 8-year survival time (p = 0.008) compared withothers who did not have such a history. Tamoxifen use, positive oestrogen receptor status, and race were prognosticindicators for 8-year survival time (p = 0.036, p = 0.018, p = 0.053, respectively) in univariate analysis. Multivariateanalysis showed that being Malays and having no family history of cancer were independent prognostic factorsfor shorter survival time (p = 0.008, p = 0.012, respectively). In conclusion, being Chinese and having a familyhistory of cancer are predictors of longer survival among the Malaysian breast cancer women.