Prevalence and histopathological pattern of breast cancer among patients at Abia State University teaching Hospital, Aba, South Eastern Nigeria

There has been no previous study to classify breast cancers in detail based on histopathologically confirmed diagnosis in Abia State University Teaching Hospital, Aba, Nigeria. This study aims at determining the prevalence and histological pattern of breast cancers in our centre. This retrospective study was based on histopathological diagnosed breast cancer lesions from January 2012 to December 2016. Out of 305 archival results and slides retrieved, 29.8% were cancerous in nature. The ratio of benign to malignant lesion was 2.35:1. The age range of the patients was 21-71years. The peak incidence age range was the fifth decade (50, 54.94%). Mean age of breast cancer patients was 46.5+5.4years while majority of patients (78.0%) were in s age group of 21-50years. The left breast (61.5%) was more affected than the right. Invasive ductal carcinoma was the predominant histologic presentation (72.52%), followed by invasive lobular carcinoma (10.98%) and metastatic carcinoma (4.40%). Nineteen (21%) of the patients presented with stages 1 and 11 of the disease while majority 72 (79.1%) presented with advanced stage of disease commonly with stage 111. There was no significant relationship between clinical stage of breast cancer and the age of patients seen (p value >0.05).Key words: Breast cancer, Histopathological patterns, Aba, Nigeria