Abstract:
Background. Nearly 70% of women diagnosed with breast cancer in Ghana are in advanced stages of the disease due especially to
low awareness, resulting in limited treatment success and high death rate. With limited epidemiological studies on breast cancer
in Ghana, the aim of this study is to assess and understand the pattern of breast cancer distribution for enhancing early detection
and treatment. Methods. We randomly selected and screened 3000 women for clinical palpable breast lumps and used univariate
and bivariate analysis for description and exploration of variables, respectively, in relation to incidence of breast cancer. Results. We
diagnosed 23 (0.76%) breast cancer cases out of 194 (6.46%) participants with clinically palpable breast lumps. Seventeen out of
these 23 (0.56%) were premenopausal (<46.6 years) with 7 (0.23%) being below 35 years. With an overall breast cancer incidence
of 0.76% in this study, our observation that about 30% of these cancer cases were below 35 years may indicate a relative possible
shift of cancer burden to women in their early thirties in Ghana, compared to Western countries. Conclusion. These results suggest
an age adjustment for breast cancer screening to early twenties for Ghanaian women and the need for a nationwide breast cancer
screening to understand completely the pattern of breast cancer distribution in Ghana.
