Clinico-pathological features and prognosis of breast cancer in different religious communities in India

A study of clinical and pathological features, patterns of relapse and prognosis of breast cancer in various religious communities--viz. Hindu, Muslim, Christian and Parsi--was undertaken among 4377 evaluable cases treated at Tata Memorial Hospital between 1965 and 1982. Of these 82.4 per cent were Hindus, 7.3 per cent Muslims, 7.4 percent Christians and 2.7 percent Parsis. The mean age at diagnosis was 55 years for Parsis which was 7 to 8 years older than that for the other communities. There were no remarkable differences in histological tumour type or grade; except that parsis had higher incidence of uncommon histological types, such as dust carcinoma in situ and colloid carcinoma, and had a slightly more favourable grade distribution. When classified according to the TNM system (UICC 1978), the Parsis had the most favourable stage at presentation followed by Christians, Hindus and Muslims in that order. This trend was highly statistically significant (p less than 0.001). Despite this significant differences between stage of disease at diagnosis, no differences in the overall 5-year survival was observed between the communities. This remained true even after matching for disease stage and menopausal status. Even the Parsis, in whom the disease was detected relatively early, failed to register a survival advantage. Much work need to be done with regard to early detection of Breast Cancer in India.