Demographic and clinical predictors of breast cancer among Palestinian women

Abstract

Breast cancer is one of the most common invasive cancers in women. Factors contributing to breast cancer include demographic, clinical, social and psychological ones. This study was set out to highlight to how much extent the investigated demographic and clinical factors are associated with breast cancer. The study was carried on 200 patients who are suffering from breast cancer. Of the total, 197 patients were females, and the 3 remaining were males. Data was collected from the government hospitals in middle and northern parts of the West Bank, Palestine. For analyzing the data, descriptive stat and binary logistic regression were executed using SPSS 20. The mean age of patients was 48.9 (SD = 10.7). Estrogen receptors (ER) and progesterone receptors (PR), abortion, psychological distress, marital status, and career of patients have been found as predicting factors for breast cancer. In conclusion, breast cancer is a major threat for Palestinian women and healthy living. However, increasing awareness of this disease and its predictors and related risk factors such as abortion, psychological distress and others may limit such a disease. Also, implementation of a breast cancer screening program may also help in curing this disease in its early stages.

Keywords: Breast cancer, invasive, psychological distress, risk factors.