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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.
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Background: Worldwide, breast cancer is the most common cancer in women. Breast cancer screening has been found effective in early diagnosis and decreasing mortality rates. Aim of the study: To assess Saudi Women’s knowledge, attitudes and practices towards breast cancer screening in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and investigate factors that influence these practices. Methods: This is a cross-sectional community-based survey; a self-administered questionnaire was used to collect data from a convenience sample of females with a wide spectrum of socio-demographic profiles. A scoring scheme was used to score women’s responses. Logistic regression analyses were conducted to identify factors associated with screening practices viz. breast self-examination (BSE), mammography and attitudes. Results: The study included 407 females, mean (± S.D) age of 28 years (± 8.5); 45% were married and 40.2% had a university degree. Only 30% of females practiced BSE and 25% had ever performed mammography. Stepwise logistic regression analysis revealed that inappropriate attitude is independently predictable by inadequate knowledge (p<0.0001). Factors independently associated with BSE practice in the stepwise logistic regression analysis were being married (p<0.05), appropriate attitude (p<0.05), adequate knowledge (p<0.05) and performing a mammography test (p<0.0001). Factors independently associated with performing mammography were age greater than 40 years (p<0.05), higher knowledge score (p<0.0001) and practicing BSE (p<0.0001). Conclusion: These study findings indicate significant inadequate knowledge, inappropriate attitude towards breast cancer as well as suboptimal screening practices among Saudi women. Therefore, preventive educational campaigns employing innovative strategies to increase population awareness, particularly targeting future generations through schools and university curricula, should be urgently implemented to reverse the course of the upward growing incidence of breast cancer disease in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
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Introduction: Brest Cancer is the second most commontype of Cancer after lung Cancer. Hence, it is necessary tobring etiology, symptoms of awareness in the women aboutthe breast Cancer. It is more important to the women whoare affected with the Breast Cancer to be aware about thetreatment, appropriate diet during the treatment, side effectsof therapy and their remedies and precautions after treatment.This study was conducted to assess the impact of awarenessabout the disease on the health status of breast cancer patients.Material and methods: A sample of 300 patients sufferingfrom breast cancer were selected by random sampling method.Interview schedule was structured to collect informationregarding awareness of breast cancer patients. Health statusassessed by anthropometric measurement for BMI and waisthip ratio, presence of clinical sign and symptoms assessedby clinical examination and estimation of hemoglobin bycyanmethemoglobin method . One way anova test was appliedto determine the significance of the study.Results: It was found that maximum breast cancer patients(N=242) exhibited medium status of awareness whichwas found to be 80.67%. The high status of awareness wasobserved only in 15.33% breast cancer patients which wascomparatively a small number (N=46). The least numberof breast cancer patients (N=12) exhibited low status ofawareness (4%).Conclusion: The study concluded that awareness of diseasein breast cancer patients has a significant effect on their healthstatus.