ABSTRACT
Objective To study the epidemiology of breast diseases based on a vast amount of data collected from a number of hospitals. Methods The pathological data of breast diseases collected from 14 hospitals were statistically analyzed. Grouping was made according to the patients′ age, i.e. every 10 years from 0 to 69 as a group, and the patients aged 70 and over as another group. A database was established using software SPSS (10.0). A statistical analysis was made on the types of breast diseases, the incidence was calculated, and curves were plotted up based on the types of disease and the contribution of patients′ age in different hospitals. Results A total of 35948 cases, including 46 diseases of breast diseases, were analyzed. The common diseases were fibroadenoma, carcinoma, adenosis, hyperplasia of male breast, cystic hyperplasia and accessory-breast, which made up 37.99%, 21.49%, 20.60%, 4.54%, 3.60% and 2.80%, respectively, of the total cases analyzed. Conclusion The number of patients suffering from breast diseases is proportional to the size of the hospital. It has been found that different pathology of the breast had its peak preponderant age of discovery. In all the cases analyzed, tumors were found in 23 167 cases, accounting for 64.45% of all patients, among which benign and malignant lesions constituted 66.13% and 33.74%, respectively. Fibroadenoma was the predominant tumor among benign tumors (89.14%), while the breast cancer constituted 98.82% of malignant tumors. The incidences of the both types of tumor, were similar in different hospitals. No significant difference was found on the peak ages of different breast diseases among the hospitals. 12 781 cases of nontumorous lesions accounting for 35.55% for all the cases showed marked differences in age distribution among hospitals, implying that there were different diagnostic criteria for such lesions.