Clinico-Morphological Profile and Receptor Status in Breast Cancer Patients in a South Indian Institution

Abstract

<b>Background:</b> Breast cancer is the most common malignancy in women worldwide and the second most commoncancer in females in India. Receptor status may be important for survival. <br/><b>Objective</b>: To analyse and correlatethe clinical and morphological parameters with receptor status in breast carcinoma patients in a tertiary careinstitution in Southern India. Materials and <br/><b>Methods</b>: This retrospective study involved 320 patients of breastcancer diagnosed in an oncology hospital over a period of 3½ years. Data was analysed using SPSS Version 21.<br/><b>Results</b>: Some 60.6% patients with breast carcinomas belonged to the age group of 40 to 60 years. The mostcommon histological type was infiltrating ductal carcinoma, not otherwise specified, accounting for 84.4% ofpatients. On immunohistochemistry, estrogen receptor (ER) and progesterone receptor (PR) were expressed in56.3% and 53.1% of cases, respectively. <br/><b>Conclusions</b>: Breast cancers in India, a developing country, occur inyounger women and tend to be more aggressive with lower rates of ER and PR expression and higher histologicaltumor grades. Both ER and PR status of the tumors had significant associations with the patient age, pathologicalTNM stage and histological tumor grade.