Predictive Factors of Survival Time of Breast Cancer in Kurdistan Province of Iran between 2006-2014: A Cox Regression Approach

Abstract

<b>Background:</b> Breast cancer is the most common cancer and the second most common cause of cancer-inducedmortalities in Iranian women, following gastric carcinoma. The survival of these patients depends on severalfactors, which are very important to identify in order to understand the natural history of the disease. Materialsand <br/><b>Methods</b>: In this retrospective study, 313 consecutive women with pathologically-proven diagnosis of breastcancer who had been treated during a seven-year period (January 2006 until March 2014) at Towhid hospital,Sanandaj city, Kurdistan province of Iran, were recruited. The Kaplan-Meier method was used for data analysis,and finally those factors that showed significant association on univariate analysis were entered in a Cox regressionmodel. <br/><b>Results</b>: the mean age of patients was 46.10±10.81 years. Based on Kaplan-Meier method median ofsurvival time was 81 months and 5 year survival rate was 75%±0.43. Tumor metastasis (HR=9.06, p=0.0001),relapse (HR=3.20, p=0.001), clinical stage of cancer (HR=2.30, p=0.03) and place of metastasis (p=0.0001) hadsignificant associations with the survival rate variation. Patients with tumor metastasis had the lowest five-yearsurvival rate (37%)and among them patients who had brain metastasis were in the worst condition (5 year survivalrate= 11%±0.10). <br/><b>Conclusions</b>: Our findings support the observation that those women with higher stages ofbreast malignancies (especially with metastatic cancer) have less chance of surviving the disease. Furthermore,screening programs and early detection of breast cancer may help to increase the survival of those women whoare at risk of breast cancer.