Abstract

ACCUMULATIVE EFFECT OF RISK FACTORS FOR GETTING BREAST CANCER IN IRAQI WOMEN

Khalid Mahdi Salih*, Iyden K. Mohemmed, Mahera Al-Shaikh,
Maha Mohmmed Al-Sayyid

Abstract

In Iraq, breast cancer ranks the first among the commonest malignancies, which became one of the major threats to Iraqi female health. The current study attempt to determine the strength of each risk factor alone, and the accumulative effect of risk factors combination upon 181 Iraqi women in different sites and hospitals for early detection of breast cancer and gynecology during the period from July 2013 to October 2014. The results showed that only four preventable risk factors (obesity, previous breast disease, oral contraceptive use, and abortion) were significantly (P < 0.05) associated with breast cancer, while most of the non-preventable risk factors including positive family history, non-secretors, early age at menarche and late age at menopause were significantly (P < 0.05) increased the risk in women for getting breast cancer. Furthermore, the accumulative effect of all these risk factors showed that 99.1% of breast cancer women have combination of one or more risk factors whether they are preventable or non-preventable which are present in different combination in comparison with 68% of normal breast and 75% of benign breast - diseased women.It can be concluded that secretor status was the strongest risk factor for getting breast cancer particularly when combined with other risk factors.

Keywords: Breast cancer, risk factors, secretory status.