Abstract

We analyzed the clinicopathological characteristics of 1,425 primary breast cancer patients admitted to the Cancer Hospital of Shantou University Medical College from 1995 to 2008. The peak age group was 45-49 years old and median age was 49 years old. Sixty-two percent of the patients were pre-menopausal, while the remaining was postmenopausal. In the present study, 53% of the patients were in stage I-II of TNM staging. Immunohistochemical detection demonstrated that estrogen receptor (ER), progestrone receptor (PR) and human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (Her-2) were 59%, 56% and 32% positive, respectively. The most common histological type was invasive ductal carcinoma accounting for 76% of total patients. Most patients received surgical treatment (97.2%) and chemotherapy (74.4%). The overall five-year and ten-year survival rates were 63% and 56% respectively. Multivariate analyses revealed that the tumor size, axillary lymph node involvement, and clinical staging were independent risk factors for overall survival (OS). In summary, the largest cohort of breast cancer patients in Eastern Guangdong was analyzed with their clinicopathological characteristics. We demonstrated that the similar clinical outcomes were obtained by multi-modality therapy, and the tumor size and lymph node involvement are the independent prognostic factors being same as the previous reports.

Keywords: Breast cancer, clinicopathological characteristics, lymph node involvement, overall survival, prognosis, tumor size.