Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2012 Dec;15(4):393-400.
doi: 10.4048/jbc.2012.15.4.393. Epub 2012 Dec 31.

Changing patterns in the clinical characteristics of korean breast cancer from 1996-2010 using an online nationwide breast cancer database

Beom Seok Ko  1 , Woo Chul Noh, Sung Soo Kang, Byeong Woo Park, Eun Young Kang, Nam Sun Paik, Jung Hyun Yang, Sei Hyun Ahn; Korean Breast Cancer Society
Affiliations

Changing patterns in the clinical characteristics of korean breast cancer from 1996-2010 using an online nationwide breast cancer database

Beom Seok Ko et al. J Breast Cancer. 2012 Dec.

Abstract

Purpose: Breast cancer is one of the most frequent malignancies in Korean women, and its incidence is increasing at a rapid rate. Since 1996, the Korean Breast Cancer Society has collected nationwide breast cancer data using an online registration program and analyzed the data biennial. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the characteristics of Korean breast cancer and to analyze changes in these characteristics over the period of time.

Methods: Data were collected from 41 medical schools (74 hospitals), 24 general hospitals, and 6 private clinics. Data on the total number, gender, and age of newly-diagnosed breast cancer patients were collected through a questionnaire. Additional data were collected and analyzed from the online database.

Results: In 2010, 16,398 patients in Korea were newly diagnosed with breast cancer. The crude incidence rate of female breast cancer was 67.2 cases per 100,000, and the median age at diagnosis was 49 years. The incidence of breast cancer was highest in patients aged between 40 and 49 years. Since 1996, there has been a significant increase in the proportion of early-stage cancers (detected in stage 1 or 2), the percentage of estrogen receptor-positive cancers, and in the proportion of patients receiving breast-conserving surgery.

Conclusion: The incidence and clinical characteristics of Korean breast cancer are slowly changing to the patterns of Western countries. To understand changing patterns in the characteristics of Korean breast cancer, the nationwide data should be continuously analyzed.

Keywords: Breast neoplasms; Korea; Online registration program.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Number of newly-diagnosed breast cancer patients according to the Korean Breast Cancer Society survey.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Annual crude incidence of Korean female breast cancer. *Patients number per 100,000 women.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Age-specific crude incidence of Korean female breast cancer. *New diagnoses number per 100,000 women.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Trends in the median age of Korean breast cancer patients and in the ratio of postmenopausal to premenopausal women at the time of diagnosis.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Breast cancer in Korean women by stage, according to the American Joint Committee on Cancer classification system (6th edition).
Figure 6
Figure 6
Surgical trends in Korean breast cancer patients. BCO=breast-conserving operation.
Figure 7
Figure 7
The proportion of estrogen receptor-positive breast cancer in Korea.
Figure 8
Figure 8
Comparison of age-specific crude incidence rates. *New breast cancer cases per 100,000 women: based on †cancer statistics in Japan (2007); ‡SEER 18 data (2005-2009).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Jemal A, Bray F, Center MM, Ferlay J, Ward E, Forman D. Global cancer statistics. CA Cancer J Clin. 2011;61:69–90. - PubMed
    1. Forouzanfar MH, Foreman KJ, Delossantos AM, Lozano R, Lopez AD, Murray CJ, et al. Breast and cervical cancer in 187 countries between 1980 and 2010: a systematic analysis. Lancet. 2011;378:1461–1484. - PubMed
    1. Siegel R, Naishadham D, Jemal A. Cancer statistics, 2012. CA Cancer J Clin. 2012;62:10–29. - PubMed
    1. Shin HR, Joubert C, Boniol M, Hery C, Ahn SH, Won YJ, et al. Recent trends and patterns in breast cancer incidence among Eastern and Southeastern Asian women. Cancer Causes Control. 2010;21:1777–1785. - PubMed
    1. National Cancer Center. Report on the Statistics for National Cancer Incidence 2009. Goyang: National Cancer Center; 2011.

LinkOut - more resources