Ten-year survival and prognostic factors for breast cancer in the southeast region of Brazil.

INTRODUCTION

: Breast cancer is an important public health issue in many parts of the world. Thus, it shows relevant incidence and is considered one of the main causes of death from cancer among women.

OBJECTIVE

: To analyze ten-year survival and prognostic factors in women with invasive breast cancer.

METHODS

: The cohort was composed of 195 women assisted in an oncology referral center in the municipality of Juiz de Fora, state of Minas Gerais, Brazil, who were diagnosed with the disease in 2000 and 2001. Sociodemographic, tumoral, health service, and treatment-related characteristics were analyzed. The Kaplan-Meier method was used to estimate the survival functions and the Cox model of proportional hazards for the evaluation of prognostic factors.

RESULTS

: The ten-year survival after diagnosis was of 56.3%. The major independent prognostic factors associated with increased risk of death were tumor size > 2.0 cm (hazard ratio - HR = 1.9; confidence interval - 95%CI 1.0 - 3.2) and presence of compromised lymph nodes (HR = 3.7; 95%CI 2.1 - 5.9).

CONCLUSION

: These findings reinforce the need of adopting actions that ensure access of the target population to the recommended diagnostic and therapeutic modalities, thus contributing to achieve earlier diagnosis and better survival rates.