The Indian scene

Breast cancer is the second most common cancer among women in India, after cancer of the cervix uteri. Presently, 75,000 new cases occur in Indian wom en every year. This figure must be viewed against the backdrop that the nat ional cancer registry and the hospital-based tumor registries hardly sample 3% of the total population. Locally advanced breast cancer constitutes mor e than 50% to 70% of patients presenting for treatment. The management of t he patients varies according to the hospital the patient seeks treatment fr om. In this vast country, hospitals vary from peripheral hospitals with bas ic facilities to the specialized institutions in the metropolitan centers w ith all specialists, medical oncologists, radiation oncologists, surgical o ncologists, and supporting facilities. In the peripheral hospitals, the tre atment is invariably a radical mastectomy with or without radiotherapy. In the metropolitan areas and in specialized cancer institutions, management m irrors international recommendations with brachiocephalic trunk or modified radical mastectomy, radiation therapy, and chemotherapy. (C) 2001 by Ameri can Society of Clinical Oncology.