The pathologic characteristics of breast cancer in China and its shift during 1999-2008: A national-wide multicenter cross-sectional image over 10 years
Menée en Chine sur la période 1999-2008, cette étude transversale analyse la typologie des cancers du sein et les caractéristiques de 4 211 patientes traitées en hôpital
In China, breast cancer is currently the most common malignancy and the sixth leading cause of cancer death in women. But the characteristics of breast cancer in the whole population are not determined. The aim of this study was to perform a detailed study on pathologic characteristics of breast cancer representing the whole population in China during 1999 to 2008 and to compare the difference in invasive breast cancer between the Western and Chinese. We randomly collected 4211 inpatient at seven hospitals in representative geographical regions of China during 1999 to 2008. All the hospitals had the ability of comprehensive cancer treatment. The pathologic characters including ER, PR and HER2 status were surveyed. The shift of pathologic characters was evaluated and the data from China were also compared with those of the Western, both using Chi-square test. We found as follow. (i) The median age of the patients was 48 years and showed the similar characters of Asia. (ii) Breast cancer in China showed more invasive ductal carcinoma (IDC) with larger tumor size, later stage, lower ER and PR expression and higher HER2 overexpression than those in the Western (P < 0.001). (iii) Both tumor size and stage at diagnosis decreased year by year (P < 0.001). Breast cancer in China showed more aggressive behavior than those in western countries, although tumor size and stage at diagnosis decreased by year during 1999-2008. We addressed the urgent needs for employ race-specific breast cancer screen, diagnosis methods and therapeutic models in China. © 2012 Wiley-Liss, Inc.