CURRENT STATUS OF BREAST-CANCER IN HONG-KONG

Objective To study the mode of presentation, the tumor, nodes, metasta sis (TNM) staging and the efficacy of multimodal treatment of breast c ancer among Chinese women treated in Queen Mary Hospital. Methods The available records of ail breast cancer patients treated between Januar y 1980 and December 1994 were reviewed. The mode of presentation, the TNM staging of the disease, estrogen receptor status and the mode of s urgical and adjuvant treatment were studied. Statistical correlation w as performed between the factors studied and the survival time. Result s Seven hundred and one cases of breast cancer were identified. The me an age of the patients was 56.6 years (range, 20-98 years). The most c ommon complaint was the presence of a mass which occurred in 635 (90.6 %) patients and 454 (71.5%) of these patients were painless. The major ity of patients had T2 rumours (51.8%) and stage II disease (59.6%), b ut only 86 (12.3%) patients underwent breast conservative therapy (BCT ). Estrogen receptor was positive in 43% of patients. Two hundred and ninety (41.4%) patients were node positive and the mean number of invo lved nodes was 3.8 per patient. Adjuvant chemotherapy was given to 125 node positive patients, adjuvant tamoxifen to 188 patients and both t o 63 patients. Univariate analyses of factors possibly affecting survi val showed that advanced stage disease and nodal involvement were asso ciated with a significantly lower survival time. Among the node positi ve patients, those with seven or more involved nodes had a shorter sur vival. The types of surgery and adjuvant treatment (for node positive patients) had no direct correlation with survival. Conclusion Our resu lts showed that the majority of our patients presented with a painless mass and the final outcome was determined by the tumour load at the t ime of presentation (TNM staging and nodal status).