ABSTRACT
Breast cancer represents 20% of all cancer cases registered in the National Cancer Institute [NCI], University of Gezira, Sudan. New cases of breast cancer presented during the period from January 2001 to December 2001 were included in this study The objective was to estimate the prognosis of breast cancer in [NCI] in terms of 5 years survival. The data were collected mainly from the hospital records. In cases of missed data, addresses of kin provided in the hospital records were contacted to find out the survival status of the patients. Data were analyzed according to two sets of variables; patients related variables and tumor-related variables. Kaplan-Meier method was used to determine the overall survival curve. Totally, 64 patients were evaluated for the study. Of them, 41 [64%] patients presented with disease stage 3 and 4. The mean of follow-up duration was 21.5 months, while the median was 10.5 months. The total number of deaths was 41; those who died in the hospital were 6, representing only 14.6% of the total deaths. The median overall survival period for the population of the study was 40 months and the cumulative survival probability was 38%. The majority of the patients who presented with advanced-stage disease seem to account for the poor overall survival reported in this study. Early detection of breast cancer by breast self-examination and physician breast examination should be encouraged in Sudan to improve treatment results in breast cancer