Abstract 1215: Epidemiology of breast malignancies in sub-Saharan Africa: A ten-year retrospective evaluation of 2,419 patients at a major tertiary institution in Southwestern Nigeria
Authors: Buraimoh Funlayo O. , Popoola Abiodun O. 
Published: August 2018

Background: There is limited information on the epidemiology and clinical presentation of breast cancer in Sub-Saharan Africa. This analysis evaluated the prevalence, characteristics of the disease over a ten-year period, as well as the impact of sociodemographic factors on late breast cancer presentation in Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH) Lagos, a major tertiary institution in Nigeria, the most populous country in Africa. Objectives: The aim of this study is to determine the epidemiological variants of all breast cancer cases at LASUTH, 2007- 2017. Materials and Methods: There was no restriction on gender or age groups. Late presentation was defined by symptomatic presentation. Tumors were characterized by histological subtypes. Mean, frequencies and percentages were performed using STATA/IC 12.1 for Windows. Results: A total of 2419 breast cancer patients were seen during the ten-year period. There were more female malignancies (n=2380, 98.4%) compared to male malignancies (n=39, 1.6%). The prevalence of breast cancer was found to be 37.5%. The overall mean age (years) was 47.27, the age range was 19 to 91 years. Increased risk of late presentation (n=1910, 79%). Overall higher presentation were made from christians (n= 1849, 76.4%), married individuals (n=2089, 86.4%), people in unskilled professions such as traders (n=808, 33.4%) and people with a tertiary level of education (n= 239, 12.8%). As the primary level of treatment, most of the patients had mastectomy (n=1533, 63.4%), chemotherapy (n=600, 24.8%) and radiotherapy (n=51, 2.1%). The topography of all reported cases include upper-outer quadrant of breast (n=433, 17.9%), axillary tail of breast (n=381, 15.8%), overlying lesion of breast (n=144, 11.5%), lower-inner quadrant of breast (n=133, 5.5%), upper-inner quadrant of breast (n=92, 3.8%), nipple (n=77, 3.2%), lower-outer quadrant of breast (n= 75, 3.1%) and the central portion of breast (n= 42, 1.7%). The three most common morphologies were Pleomorphic carcinoma (n=717, 29.6%), Infiltrating duct carcinoma (n=630, 26%) and giant cell type of the malignant tumor (322, 13.3%). Conclusion: Our study shows that breast cancers usually present mostly in young women in Nigeria, and shows the influence of culture on late presentation. Therefore we should institute deliberate public health education and counseling in our social institutions such as religious circles that are designed particularly to favour the peculiar demographics of the population to prevent late presentation. In addition, cross-sectional studies of breast cancer tumors in younger women (before the age of 40) should be explored to better understand the disease and further understanding too of breast cancers in African American women.

Citation Format: Funlayo O. Buraimoh, Abiodun O. Popoola. Epidemiology of breast malignancies in sub-Saharan Africa: A ten-year retrospective evaluation of 2,419 patients at a major tertiary institution in Southwestern Nigeria [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2018; 2018 Apr 14-18; Chicago, IL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2018;78(13 Suppl):Abstract nr 1215.