Early Breast Cancer in Females Presenting with Palpable Breast Lumps INTRODUCTION: Worldwide, breast cancer is a public health problem. It is therefore essential that efforts in prevention and early diagnosis are implemented. One of the major problems concerning breast cancer is lack of awareness about the disease among general public. In addition teaching of women regarding breast self- examination and mammography screening programs are not properly implemented in Pakistan. Overall survival in this condition is dependent upon the stage of the disease at diagnosis. About 54% of the women are diagnosed in stage II, and only 16% are diagnosed in stage I. 1 All breast lesions are not malignant, and all the benign lesions do not progress to cancer; however the accuracy of diagnosis can be increased by triple Correspondence: Dr. Sumera Baloch Department of Surgery Unit-IV Civil Hospital Karachi Email: dr_sumerabaloch@hotmail.com assessment i.e. physical examination, mammography, fine needle aspiration cytology and core needle biopsy. 1 Breast cancer remains a significant cause of cancer related deaths in developing countries 1,2 The epidemiology of breast cancer in Pakistan is difficult to describe mainly due to a lack of tumor registry. An early diagnosis and prompt treatment can reduce the morbidity and mortality associated with this disease. Current study aimed at determining the frequency of early breast cancer in women presenting with breast lumps so as to produce data that shall help in planning educational and screening strategies. METHODOLOGY: A total of 282 females aged 13 year and above presented with palpable breast lumps at Outpatient department of surgical unit IV, Civil Hospital Karachi from December 2011 to June 2012. Trucut Biopsy was performed on all the patients with palpable breast lumps using a needle of 14 G under local anaesthesia and 3-5 samples were taken. ABSTRACT Objective Study design Prospective cohort study. Place & Duration of study Methodology Key words Conclusion Results Surgical Unit - IV Civil Hospital Karachi, from December 2011 to June 2012. The frequency of breast cancer was 29% in present group of patients presenting with breast lumps. All female patients 13 year and above with palpable breast lumps were recruited in this study after seeking their consent. Triple assessment was carried out and core biopsies taken. Histopathology reports were recorded. To determine the frequency of early breast cancer in women presenting with palpable breast lumps. Two hundred and eighty two females between 15 to 80 year (mean= 36.5 year) presented with breast lumps. Of the total 72% (n=199) lumps were benign on histopathology while 29 % (n=83) showed malignancy. There were 19 (7%) cases of breast abscess. ORIGINAL ARTICLE Sumera Baloch, Farzana Memon, Roger Christopher Gill, Amber Bawa, M.Saeed Quraishy 79 Early breast cancer, Trucut biopsy, Breast lump. Journal of Surgery Pakistan (International) 19 (2) April - June 2014