BACKGROUND: Breast cancer is the most common cancer among women worldwide including Iran. Survival rate and the rate of recurrence are important indicators for evaluation of the care quality in different types of malignancies including breast cancer. The aim of this study was to estimate survival and recurrence rate and their correlated factors in breast cancer patients referred to Iranian Center for Breast Cancer.
METHODS: All of the patients referred to ICBC from 1998 to 2006 included in the study. In 2011, by telephone interview, demographic, clinical and treatment data of patients were completed and the time to recurrence or death was recorded. Survival estimates were calculated using the Kaplan-Meier method and predicting factors of overall survival and recurrence rate were studied by Cox’s proportional hazard model.
RESULTS: Because of access limitation, 623 patients of 844 registered ones recruited in the study. The mean age of patients was 46.5 (±11.2). About half of them (49%) had high school and higher education and 53% of them were in stage II of disease. Death, local recurrence and metastasis occurred in 18%, 7.5% and 16.5% of patients. The overall 2 and 5 year survival rates were 96% and 87% respectively. After 2 and 5 years from diagnosis, about 96% and 93% of patients were recurrence free. Cox regression analysis indicated lymph node involvement HR (95% CI)= 2.63 (1.27-5.46), negative Estrogen Receptor HR (95% CI) =2.34 (1.37-4) and educational level lower than high school HR (95% CI)= 2.02 (1.15-3.52) as predictors of breast cancer survival. There was significant independent correlation between lymph node involvement, negative ER, not receiving hormone therapy and breast preserving surgery with local recurrence (P<0.05), but none of these factors showed significant correlation in Cox regression analysis.
CONCLUSIONS: The study results persist on the importance of implementing multidisciplinary centers for diagnosis and treatment of different diseases. Introducing predicting factors of survival and local recurrence have important role in providing more accurate and effective diagnostic and therapeutic modalities.