Breast cancer in Iran: an epidemiological review

Breast cancer is one of the most frequent malignancies among Iranian women, however; the epidemiological aspects of breast cancer among Iranian patients are uncertain. A literature review of the published articles from January 1998 to December 2005 was conducted using different search engines: MEDLINE, Scientific information data base of Academic Center for Education, Culture and Research, and over 2000 issues of 94 Persian medical journals. The headings "Breast Cancer,""Breast Tumor,""Breast Malignancy," and "Breast Carcinoma" were combined with the word "Iran" to execute the search. In all, 85 full papers were reviewed. These findings showed that participants ranged from 15 to 84 years old, with those 40-49 being the most prevalent. The incidence of breast cancer in women was 22 per 100,000. The prevalence in this same population was 120 per 100,000. Stage I was diagnosed in 18%, stage II in 57% and stage III in 25% of the cases. About 72% of the patients were diagnosed with a tumor over 2 cm. Sixty-three percent of the patients had lymph node involvement at the diagnostic time. Infiltrative ductal carcinoma was found to be the most common at 77% and lobular carcinoma the least at 5%. This review indicates that the epidemiological aspects of breast cancer in Iran are relatively well-studied. Shortcomings in study of its clinical aspects are evident and need to be a central part of upcoming investigations.