Epidemiological and clinicopathological features of breast cancer in Mauritania

Background: Breast cancer is the leading cause of death in African women. The aim of this cross -sectional study was to assess the incidence, clinic-pathological characteristics, risk factors and outcome of breast cancer in Mauritania. Methods: Demographic and clinic pathological features of breast cancer were gathered from 11174 patient files of all cancer types referred to the Centre National d'Oncologie (CNO) between January 2009 and December 2020. Results: Breast cancer was the most common type of cancer identified in women (30.7%). The disease incidence increased from 69 in 2009 to 209 in 2020 with a mean age of 49 year sat cancer detection. Grade 3 tumor was diagnosed in 31.8% patients. Stage 3 and metastasic stage were found respectively in 44.9 % and 22.6% of screened women. 40.4% of cancer patients with satisfactory immunohistochemical data were triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) but no significant variation was found in these features between TNBC and non TNBC groups. A 3-year survival rate of 63% was observed. Conclusions: These results support the already published studies on the likely genetic basis of breast cancer in our population.