Ten year breast cancer screening and follow up in 52200 women in Shahre‐Kord, Iran (1997‐2006)

Introduction: This study was conducted to determine the outcomes of the project of ‘Integration of Breast Cancer Screening and Early Detection’ into Primary Health Care (PHC) System and to detect the incidence rate, mortality rate and the stage of reported breast cancers, during the timeframe of the project in Shahre-Kord.

Methods: A prospective cohort study was conducted, reviewing medical records of all women aged over 30 in Shahre-Kord district who participated in the screening project between 1997 and 2006. Patients’ demographic data, risk factors, diagnostic approach, treatments after definite diagnosis, and time of death of the deceased patients due to breast cancer were investigated from four sources: Provincial Health Centre, direct conversation via telephoning and interview, medical records of patients admitted to Seyed-Al Shohada Hospital, Isfahan (as the only referral oncology hospital in the region), and the provincial vital registry system as a part of national cancer registry.

Results: Overall 52200 women were eligible to enter the study and in this population, 40 breast cancer cases were detected. Incidence rate of breast cancer in women older than 30 years, during the timeframe of study, is estimated as 77.6 per 100000. Clinical features of the patients were as follow: stage-IIA (20%), stage-IIB (40%), stage-IIIA (30%) and stage-IIIB (10%). All 40 cases of cancer underwent pathology diagnosis, which showed infiltrative ductal carcinoma in 38%, invasive ductal carcinoma in 33%, ductal carcinoma in 25%, and infiltrative coloidal carcinoma in 4% of them. During the study, 31 cases (77.5%) survived and 9 cases (22.5%) died, all due to breast cancer.

conclusion: The mean age of breast cancer in this study was significantly lower than Western countries. Mortality rate due to breast cancer in this study during ten year follow up was 1.73 in 100000 women population, which is less than the national figure of 3.16 in 100000.