PATTERN OF HISTOLOGICAL TYPES OF BREAST CANCER AMONG VARIOUS AGE GROUPS IN THE NIGER DELTA

Background:with breast cancer being a most common scourge in the country, there is need to define the epidemiological pattern of breast cancer patients in the niger delta; assessing their age distribution and histological types towards improved health care planning.objective: to determine the pattern of histological types of breast cancer among various age groups in two major hospitals in the niger delta.design: descriptive study.setting: central hospital warri, delta state and university of benin teaching hospital,edo state.subjects: the biodata and histological type of 216 breast cancer patients seen at both hospitals between 2000 and 2010 were extracted from hospital records, collated and analysed using simple descriptive statistics.results: the age range was 20- 92years. fifty six percent of cases occurred between 30-50 years. mean age was 48.12 years_+14.33, median age 48 years and modal age range 36-40 years. invasive ductal carcinoma was the commonest histological type at 87.0%.intraductal carcinoma was very minimal at 4.4%. the right breast was involved in 49.1% and left breast, 50.1% of cases. one case of bilateral breast cancer was noted.conclusion: breast cancer in the niger delta commonly occurs at premenopausal ages. a majority occurring between the third to fifth decade of life. invasive ductal carcinoma is the commonest histological type.