Types of precancerous and cancerous breast lesions at pathology laboratory of the Buea Regional Hospital-Cameroon

Abstract

Introduction: Breast cancer is the 1st gynaecological cancer globally, with 2.100.000 cases, among which 627.000 are fatal annually. These figures are projected to get to 14.000.000 cases and 8.200.000 deaths in the next two decades. Breast cancer is a variety of different histological types of cancers. The types of cancers are ductal carcinoma in situ, lobular carcinoma in situ, invasive breast cancer, inflammatory carcinoma, papilloma, medullary carcinoma, phyllode tumours, and Paget disease. Methodology: A descriptive retrospective study was carried out based on the registry of the pathology laboratory of the Buea regional hospital, Cameroon. The period was from the 04th of March 2016 to the 25th of May 2019. Results: In terms of frequency, the following types of precancerous lesions and cancers were recorded: invasive breast carcinoma, carcinoma in situ, papilloma, inflammatory carcinoma, phyllode tumours and angiosarcoma. Their respective percentages were; 74.84, 14, 47, 6.92, 1.89, 1.57, and 0.32 Conclusion: Breast cancer is a heterogeneous malignancy made of various histological types. Our study identified the following pathologies in order of frequency: invasive breast carcinoma, ductal carcinoma in situ, papilloma, inflammatory carcinoma, phylloid tumours and angiosarcoma. Objective: the objective of the study was to find out the frequency of various types of breast cancer and precancerous lesions.