Publication:

A retrospective, epidemiological study on the pattern of distribution of phenotypic subgroups among patients of breast cancer in a tertiary care level hospital of West Bengal, India

Background The burden of breast cancer is increasing worldwide and it is second most cause of mortality in India. Epidemiologic data regarding different phenotypic subgroups in Indian women is scarce. The present study aimed to find out the epidemiological distribution of different phenotypic subgroups in the patients suffering from breast cancer.

Methods This was a retrospective, observational study conducted at the Department of Radiotherapy, Burdwan Medical College and Hospital, West Bengal, India between July 2012 and June 2017. Women diagnosed with biopsy proven breast carcinoma who had been attending radiation oncology outdoor patients department (OPD) were included in the study. The data of the patients regarding age at presentation, grade of tumor, Ki 67 status, hormone receptor status, and their phenotypic subgroup classification were retrieved from hospital record.

Results A total of 280 women patients were included in the study, of these, 105 were premenopausal and 175 were postmenopausal. Locally advanced breast cancer (60.0%) was most prevalent breast cancer among them. Majority of the patients had grade III tumor and higher expression of Ki-67 index at the time of presentation (53.92% and 68.21%, respectively). Infiltrating Ductal carcinoma is the most prevalent histopathological sub-type in both premenopausal and postmenopausal women. Hormone receptor positivity in premenopausal women was comparatively higher than postmenopausal women. Whereas human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 negative cancer was comparatively higher in postmenopausal women (66.98%). The most prevalent phenotypic subgroup among premenopausal and postmenopausal group was luminal B (38.09%) and luminal A (36.57%), respectively.

Conclusions Overall findings suggest that majority of patients were diagnosed with high grade and high Ki67 index which showed lack of awareness in these patients about this disease. Use of prognostic factors and predictive markers can be helpful to diagnose breast cancer at early life.