UICC World Cancer Congress 2006

Objective: Over 80 percent of Breast Cancer patients seen in our department present with either locally advanced or metastatic disease.

Ignorance, poverty, erroneous perception among others, account for this late presentation. There is the perception among women in the rural communities that one will either be divorced by the spouse or die within a short time after Mastectomy.

Breast Cancer Education and Awareness Programmes mostly target only females even though in rural communities important decisions are taken by men. This study looked at the influence marital status has on late presentation of Breast Cancer at KATH Oncology

Methods: Information about age, sex, marital status and stage at presentation were obtained from records of all patients with breast cancer presenting at our Centre between January 2004 and June 2005. Patients with unknown stage and recurrent diseases were not included in the analysis.

Results: 157 breast cancer cases presented during this period were reviewed. 47 had unknown stage while 10 had recurrent disease. The mean age is 50 years (range 20 – 101 years). 100 patients were used for the analysis. 68 patients were married while 32 were not married (either single, divorced or widow). Total number of patients with stage III and IV were 50 and 31 respectively. 72% of patients with stage III were married while it is 61% in stage IV.

This study clearly shows breast cancer awareness and education intervention programme should target women and their spouses simultaneously since spousal influence directly or indirectly affects early diagnosis and choice of optimal treatment.