Sassi F, Rekaya MB, Belarbi A, Chilla D, Mansouri N, Achouri L, Saied E, Kassa R, Kacem LB, Ouezani M, Debabeche N, Rebhi F, Rammeh S. Pathologically confirmed women's breast cancer: A descriptive study of Tunisian and Algerian series.
Cancer Rep (Hoboken) 2023;
6 Suppl 1:e1818. [PMID:
37092543 PMCID:
PMC10440841 DOI:
10.1002/cnr2.1818]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/27/2022] [Revised: 03/22/2023] [Accepted: 03/27/2023] [Indexed: 04/25/2023] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND
Breast cancer (BC) is the most frequent malignancy among women in Tunisia and Algeria. Clinical and pathological characteristics of this cancer among these populations are not widely reported. The aim of the study was to report clinical and pathological characteristics of women's BC in a Tunisian and Algerian series.
METHODS
Pathologically confirmed 1089 BCs were gathered in the pathology departments of three Northern Tunisian hospitals: Tunis military, Charles Nicolle and Jendouba and in the pathology department of Alger Douera hospital between January 2015 and December 2020. Clinical and pathological findings of the two series: age, tumor size, histological type, grading according to Scarff-Bloom Richardson grading system, lymph node status at the time of diagnosis in axillary lymphadenectomy specimens and the immunohistochemical expression of estrogen and progesterone receptors (ER/PR), HER2 and Ki-67, were collected from the pathological reports.
RESULTS
The median age at diagnosis was 50 and 48 years in Tunisian and Algerian series, respectively (p = 0.016). The diagnosis of BC was made on surgical specimens (lumpectomy or mastectomy) in 373/491 (76%) cases of the Tunisian series and in 225/598 (37.6%) cases of the Algerian one. Median tumor size was 2.8 cm and 2.5 cm in Algerian and Tunisian series, respectively (p = 0.252). Invasive BCs not otherwise specified was observed in 440/481 (91.5%) BCs in Tunisian series and in 519/586 (88.6%) BCs in Algerian series. Axillary lymph node positive tumors were observed in 64.6% and 58.8% of Tunisian and Algerian women, respectively (p = 0.926). BCs were ER positive in 311/385 (80.8%) and 486/571 (85.1%) cases and HER2 positive in 86/283 (30.4%) and 60/385 (15.6%) cases of Tunisian and Algerian series, respectively.
CONCLUSIONS
In Tunisia and Algeria, BC has poor prognostic factors with large tumor sizes and high rates of lymph nodes involvement at diagnosis.
Collapse