RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN FAMILY HISTORY OF BREAST CANCER AND CLINICOPATHOLOGICAL FEATURES IN MOROCCAN PATIENTS

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Breast cancer is the most common cancer affecting women all over the world. Inaddition to hormonal and environmental causes, family history is emerging as an important risk factorin the etiology of this disease. The aim of the present study is thus to compare the clinico-pathologicalfeatures of familial and sporadic breast cancer in Moroccan patients.METHODS: A comparative retrospective cohort study was conducted on 570 women with familial andsporadic breast cancer who were diagnosed and treated in the Oncology Center of Ibn RochdUniversity Hospital in 2009. Data on breast cancer risk factors and clinico-pathological characteristicsof the tumors were extracted from patients’ medical records.RESULTS: Familial cases represented 18.4% of breast cancer patients. The age of onset appears to beearlier in familial breast cancers (P=0.0024). There were no significant differences between familialand sporadic groups according to histological type, tumor size and estrogen receptor status. However,Scarff-Bloom-Richardson grade III was found in 43.8% of familial cases vs 26.7% of sporadic cases(P=0.0127) and the lymph node involvement was observed in 72.4% of familial cases vs 58.9% insporadic cases (P=0.0213). Moreover, familial breast cancer patients present especially progesteronereceptor-negative tumors (P=0.0380).CONCLUSIONS: Our initial significant findings show that familial breast cancer seems to affectyoung women and tends to present high Scarff-Bloom-Richardson grade tumors with lymph nodeinvolvement and absence of progesterone receptors. These preliminary results may be useful as clinicalmarker to identify familial breast cancer allowing the development of careful follow-up for thispatients subtype.