Clinico-epidemiological profile of breast cancer patients and the retrospective application of Gail model 2: An Indian perspective.

AIM: To study the clinical and epidemiological profile of patients of breast cancer presenting at our center at New Delhi, India and to evaluate the applicability of Gail model 2 as a means of measuring 5-year and lifetime risk in our already diagnosed cases of breast cancer.

METHODS: This was a retrospective study conducted at Lady Hardinge Medical College Hospital in New Delhi, India, between January 2011 and July 2014. Two hundred and twenty two diagnosed cases of breast cancer were included. Information was collected retrospectively on a Performa from the medical record section and the Pathology department of the hospital.The predicted five-year and lifetime risk was calculated using GM2 prediction model from the NCI's breast cancer risk assessment tool website.

RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS: Breast cancer in India is a far more biologically aggressive disease than in the west with a widely different spectrum of presentation and behavior and late presentation in an advanced stage. The accepted risk factors routinely associated with breast cancer in western literature do not appear to be relevant in the Indian population. Accepted western models do not seem to apply in the Indian scenario.