Investigation of Prognostic Factors in Breast Cancer and their Relationship with Age and Cancer Stage

Breast cancer is the most common cancer and the second cause of mortality in women. It is also the main cause of death among 45-55 year-old women. Several predictive and prognostic factors have been detected until now. Some of these factors, such as steroid hormone receptors and human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) and P53, have been proved. The aim of this study was to investigate these factors in women with breast cancer in Isfahan, Iran. During 1999-2009, this descriptive study was conducted on patients with pathologically confirmed breast cancer who referred to Seyed-Al-Shohada Cancer Clinic and doctor's offices in Isfahan. Data was extracted from patient files. The collected data was then entered into SPSS16 and analyzed using descriptive statistics like frequencies and mean values, and chi-square and non-parametric tests. In this study, 685 patients with breast cancer were investigated during 10 years. The mean age of patients was 47.39 ± 11.07 years. While 22 patients were in stage 1, 327, 60, and 38 subjects were in stages 2-4, respectively. In this study, the frequency of estrogen receptor, progesterone receptors, P53 protein, and HER2 was 39.4%, 36.9%, 49.9%, and 23.3%, respectively. Significant differences were detected between positive and negative estrogen receptor in stage 4, progesterone receptor in stages 2 and 4, P53 in all stages, and HER2 in stage 2. Stages of cancer were not significantly different in terms of frequency of these factors. A relation was found between estrogen and progesterone receptors and patient's age. However, such a relation could not be established in case of HER2 and P53. Assessments of hormone receptors and HER2 and P53 after the diagnosis of breast cancer seem necessary in identifying the best treatment choice. However, population differences should not be ignored in this process.