Survival analysis of 1148 women diagnosed with breast cancer in Southern Iran

The data were obtained from the cancer registry in Fars province, Southern Iran and included 1148 women diagnosed with breast cancer between 2000 and 2005. The association between survival, and sociodemographic and pathological factors, distant metastasis at diagnosis, and treatment options was investigated using Cox regression.The majority of patients were diagnosed with an advanced tumour size. Five-year overall survival was 58% (95%CI; 53%–62%). Cox regression showed that family income (good vs poor: hazard ratio 0.46, 95%CI; 0.23–0.90) smoking (HR = 1.40, 95%CI; 1.07–1.86), metastases to bone (HR = 2.25, 95%CI; 1.43–3.52) and lung (HR = 3.21, 95%CI;1.70–6.05), tumour size (≤ 2 cm vs ≥ 5 cm: HR = 2.07, 95%CI;1.39–3.09) and grade (poorly vs well differentiated HR = 2.33, 95%CI; 1.52–3.37), lymph node ratio (0 vs 1: HR = 15.31, 95%CI; 8.89–26.33) and number of involved node (1 vs >15: HR = 14.98, 95%CI; 8.83–25.33) were significantly related to survival.This is the first study to evaluate breast cancer survival in Southern Iran and has used a wide range of explanatory factors, 44. The results demonstrate that survival is relatively poor and is associated with diagnosis with late stage disease. We hypothesise that this is due to low level of awareness, lack of screening programs and subsequent late access to treatment.Breast cancer is the most commonly diagnosed malignancy among women in developed countries [1-3], and in some developing countries [4-6]. According to the report of the Iranian Centre for the Prevention and Control of Disease, Ministry of Health and Medical Education, 2000, Iran; breast cancer is the most prevalent cancer among Iranian women and accounts for 21.4% of all malignancies.The prevalence of breast cancer in Europe and the USA is estimated between 8 to 10%. However, the lowest prevalence is seen in Asian countries, at about 1% [7]. In Iran the prevalence of breast cancer was reported as 6.7/1000 in 2002, which is even less than this [8]. Whil