Introduction Today breast cancer is the most commonly seen cancer among women. The death due to breast cancer among wo- men comes as the second leading cause after lung cancer. The risk of developing breast cancer is one in eight women in developed countries (1). There are more than 1,000,000 breast cancer cases each year, and almost half of these are in less developed countries (20). In the United States of America (USA) the rate of breast cancer and other cancers increased between 1973 and 1990. All-sites cancer incidence and mortality fell in the period 1991 through 1995. After the rapid increase in breast cancer incidence rates that accompanied the widespread introduc- tion of the mammography in the 1980s, breast cancer mor- tality is now decreasing at a rate of approximately 1 % per year (16). There is not enough information about cancer statistics and outcomes for our country. In this study we aimed to analyze breast cancer cases retrospectively followed in two different University Hospital in Turkey within the last ten years. Patients and methods The records of women with diagnosis of breast cancer that followed in Hospitals of Selcuk University and Kocaeli University were examined in a retrospective way. The age of the patients, their first complaints or symptoms, physical examination findings, used diagnostic methods, localiza- tion of the tumors, axillary lymph node status, histopatho- logical types of the tumors, clinical stages and survival periods of the patients were recorded. Results The median age of the cases was 49.0±12.5 (range: 18–90 years) and distribution according to the age groups are shown in Table 1. Breast cancer was observed more common in the patients between the ages of 40–49 (32.5 %). Generally the patients (80.8 %) were admitted to the hospital as a result of the lump in the breast. The lumps were painless in most of the cases (80.9 %). The other com- plaints of the patients are shown in Table 2. While mass was palpated in 275 (85 %) cases, axillary lymph nodes were palpated only in 174 (50 %) cases. Peau 195 ORIGINAL ARTICLE CLINICAL ASSESSMENT OF 324 BREAST CANCER CASES IN TWO CENTERS BETWEEN THE YEARS OF 1992 AND 2002 Ali Borazan 1 , Hasan Üstün 2 , Faruk Aksoy 3 , Celalettin Vatansev 3 , Zafer Cantürk 4 , Muharrem Akkas ¸ 1 , S ¸ amil Ecirli 5 , Ahmet Yılmaz 1 Kocaeli University, Faculty of Medicine; Department of Internal Medicine 1 , Department of Medical Oncology 2 , Department of General Surgery 4 ; Selcuk University, Faculty of Medicine; Department of General Surgery 3 , Department of Internal Medicine 5 Summary: The records of the 324 patients with breast cancer; diagnosed and followed in two different University Hospital between years of January 1992 and January 2002 were reviewed retrospectively. The median age of the patients was 49.0±12.5 years, with the range of 18 and 90 years. The most frequently seen age interval of the patients was 40 and 49 years. The most frequently seen symptom and physical examination finding of the patients were breast mass. Breast can- cer was diagnosed in 324 women, 173 in the left breast and 151 in the right breast. At the hospital admission percentages of the patients’ disease stages were as follows: I(2.8 %), IIA (30.0 %), IIB (24.0 %), IIIA (19.8 %), IIIB (11.4) and IV (12.0 %). The most frequently seen histopathological diagnosis was infiltrative ductal carcinoma (84.4 %). Axillary lymph node me- tastasis was found in 61.7 % of the patients. Primary therapeutic options and percentages were surgical therapy (78.5 %), systemic chemotherapy (17.5 %) and radiotherapy (4 %). Systemic chemotherapy was given to 81.2 % of the patients. From the files, estrogen receptor status was known in 311 and positive in 128 (41.2 %) of them. Tamoxifen was given patients who had positive estrogen receptor. The five-year survival rate of the patients was calculated as 75.9 %. Key words: Breast cancer; Stage; Treatment; Survival ACTA MEDICA (Hradec Králové) 2003;46(4):195–199