ABSTRACT
Introduction: Globally, breast cancer is leading to cancer found among women. It is well known that cancer is an age-relateddisease and this holds true in breast cancer as well. Breast cancer is the most frequently diagnosed cancer in women, and itwas estimated that there will be 252,710 new cases of invasive breast cancer and 63,410 new cases of in situ breast cancersamong women in the United States in 2017.Purpose: The aim of the present study was to analyze the demographic spectrum of breast cancers in the Kashmir valley.Materials and Methods: This was an observational chart based study on breast cancer patients aged above 18 years of agewho were diagnosed with either invasive or in situ breast cancer at Government Medical College Hospital, Srinagar, Kashmir.The duration of the study was from June 2015 to December 2018. A retrospective study was conducted to find the informationregarding age, sex, clinical presentation, anatomical site, histopathological type, and stage of the disease.Results: A total of 151 patients with histopathologically confirmed breast cancers formed the study population. The majority of thepatients (46%) among females were <45 years of age and among males >45 years in age, with males and females constituting4% and 96% of patients in their respective groups. The upper outer quadrant was involved in 81 (54%) patients followed byupper inner 14% and central quadrant involvement in 25 (16%) patients. Among 151 patients, 42 women (28%) presented inStage IIA, 32 patients (21%) presented with Stage IIB disease, 19 patients (12%) in Stage IIIA, and 20 patients (13%) in StageIIIC; however, 17 patients (11%) presented with Stage IV disease. G2 was the most common histological grade. On the whole,liver was the most common presenting site for distant metastasis followed by lung and brain metastases.Conclusion: Early age, female sex, and residence within an endemic geographical region seem to be the prime determinantsaffecting breast cancer prevalence in a given population. A significant number of breast cancer patients in Kashmir presentwith early stage of disease and major clinical presentation were breast swelling. The majority of the cases reported in StagesII and III. Furthermore, there was significant number of patients presenting with metastasis, i.e., Stage IV.