Biomedical Review-Journal of Basic and Applied Medical Science

The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), the specialized cancer agency of the World Health Organization, in its World Cancer Report 2014 observed that as a consequence of growing and ageing populations, developing countries are disproportionately affected by the increasing numbers of cancers. Therefore more commitment to prevention and early detection is desperately needed in order to complement improved treatments and address the alarming rise in cancer burden globally [1].

The incidence of cancer in Sudan has nearly doubled from 2001 to 2007(Cancer registry record). As opined by several experts a potential surge in cancer cases in Sudan is likely to occur in immediate future [2]. Cancer of the breast cancer is the fifth most common neoplasm in the industrialized countries and in the Unites States, with an estimated increasing new cases of breast cancer diagnosed in 2010 [3].

Cancer is a disease characterized by abnormal growth and development of normal cells beyond their natural boundaries. Despite of global efforts to limit the incident of this disease, cancer has become the leading cause of death in the last 50years [4]. The burden of cancer is increasing in economically developing countries as a result of population aging and adoption of cancer-associated lifestyle including smoking and physical inactivity. Based on the most recent report available, GLOBOCAN estimated that about 12.7 million cancer cases and 7.6 million cancer deaths have occurred in 2008; of these, 56% of the cases and 64% of the deaths occurred in the economically developing world [5]. While cancer rates in general are decreasing in the United States and many western countries, they are increasing in less developed and economically transitioning countries [6].

Breast cancer results when cell in the breast begin to grow unregulated and out of control and can then invade near-by tissues or spread throughout the body. Large collections of this out of control dividing tissues are called tumors. However, some tumors are not really cancer because they cannot spread or threaten someone's life. These are called benign tumors. The tumors that can spread throughout the body or invade nearby tissue are considered cancer and are called malignant tumors [7].

The interview was conducted during the subjects' first visit to the unit and before clinical examination or any other intervention took place. This constitutes an advantage, because there was no chance that the subjects would be influenced by the diagnosis and might therefore falsely inflate the relative risk. Thus, the likelihood of recall bias is not high; improving the comparability of several covariates in group, and the selection bias is lessened since all subjects had taken the same route through the Breast Unit's standard routine procedures.

 Since each case group, any selection bias would be expected to have a similar effect on the estimates in the tumor subgroups.

Further innovative studies with larger sample sizes are needed to examine how the status of these potentially modifiable breast cancer risk factors.

Their findings will provide us with greater insight into breast cancer aetiology and will help us identify any association that would help discriminate subgroups of women at higher risk.