Factors Affecting Survival of Women Diagnosed with Breast Cancer in El-Minia Governorate, Egypt

Objectives: this study was conducted to determine breast cancer survival time and the association between breast cancer survival and socio-demographic and pathologic factors among women, in el-minia, egypt. while there has been much researches regarding prognostic factors for breast cancer but the majority of these stud- ies were from developed countries. el-minia has a population of approximately 4 million. to date, no research has been performed to determine breast cancer survival and the factors affecting it in el-minia. methods: this retrospective study used data obtained from the cancer registry in the national institute of oncology in el-minia and included 1207 women diagnosed with first primary breast cancer between 1st january 2005 and 31st december 2009 and fol- lowed to 30th june 2010. the association between survival and sociodemographic and pathological factors and distant metastasis at diagnosis, and treatment options was investigated using unifac- torial chi-square test and multi-factorial (cox regression) analyses. kaplan-meier analysis was used to compare survival time among different groups. results: median survival time was 83.8 پ} 3.2. cox regression showed that high vs low educational level (hazard ratio (hr)= 0.35, 95% ci; 0.27.0.46), metastases to bone (hr = 3.22, 95% ci: 1.71-6.05), metastases to lung (hr= 2.314, 95% ci: 1.225-4.373), tumor size (. 2 cm vs . 5 cm: hr = 1.4, 95% ci: 1.1-1.8) and number of involved nodes (1 vs > 10 hr = 5.21, 95%ci: 3.1- 9.01) were significantly related to survival. conclusions: the results showed the need to develop screening programs and standardized treatment regimens in a tax-funded health care system.