Clinicopathological profile of breast cancer: An institutional experience

This study was undertaken to evaluate the clinicopathological characteristics of patients with breast cancer at our institute, a tertiary-care cancer center in northern India.

This retrospective study included all patients with breast cancer registered at our institute from January 1^st, 2014 to December 31^st, 2016. We retrieved data (demographic, baseline clinical characteristics, pathology, and treatment details) from prospectively maintained clinical case records. Patients with incomplete case records or missing baseline information were excluded.

We included 550 patients with breast cancer. The median age was 48 years (23-85). The median clinical tumor size was 5.0 cm. The TNM (AJCC-7^th edition) stage distribution was stage I, 22 (4%); stage II, 182 (33%); stage III, 247 (44.9%); and stage IV, 99 (18%). Locally advanced breast cancer constituted 40% of the cases. Bone (48 [48.5%]) was the most common site for metastasis followed by lung. Infiltrating ductal carcinoma (528 [96%]) was the most common histologic subtype. Majority of patients, 325 (59%), were positive for estrogen receptor/progesterone receptor whereas 160 (29%) patients were HER2/neu positive. Triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) constituted 28% (154) of patients. In the nonmetastatic subgroup, 343 (76%) patients underwent modified radical mastectomy. Neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NACT) was given in 120 (26.6%) patients, of these 23 (19%) achieved pathological complete remission. Sequential anthracyline and taxane were used as NACT/adjuvant chemotherapy in most cases. Of the eligible patients, 48 (30%) received anti-HER2/neu therapy.

This is one of the largest comprehensive data from a single center in India. Majority of our patients are younger in age and have advanced disease. TNBC and HER2/neu positive breast cancer are more common in our population.