Third world issues in breast cancer detection.
OBJECTIVE
To determine the statistics for age, distributions of the type of mammography, ultrasonic evaluation, laterality, assessment category, risk factors, and financial status, amongst females undergoing mammography.


METHODS
A descriptive review of consecutive records of women undergoing mammography during Janurary and February 2005 at a tertiary care cancer facility, the Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital and Research Center in Lahore, Pakistan.


RESULTS
Of a total of 87 patients, only 12 had attended the hospital for mammographic screening. These 12 females could financially afford the cost of their images. The median age of all the females at the time of mammography was 47 years and the mode was 40 years. Of the total, 40 and 32 patients were found in assessment categories 1 and 2 respectively. Only 19 females underwent bilateral mammography whereas forty were evaluated further by ultrasound imaging. Sixteen women had family history of breast cancer among their first degree relatives, twenty eight gave history of Hormone Replacement Therapy and fifty could afford their entire imaging expenses.


CONCLUSIONS
Most patients received their first mammograms when they already had clearly palpable disease. This was partly be due to economic reasons and mainly because of low level of awareness.
Badar
Farhana
F
Cancer Registry and Clinical Data Management, Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital and Research Center, Lahore.
Faruqui
Zia Salman
ZS
Ashraf
Ammar
A
Uddin
Najam
N
D000328:Adult; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000453:epidemiology*; D003906:Developing Countries; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D008327:Mammography; D008403:Mass Screening / Q000379:methods*; D008875:Middle Aged; D010154:Pakistan / Q000453:epidemiology; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012307:Risk Factors; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors