AbstractBackground: Breast cancer is a common cancer among women in Kerala. Though the state has high literacy rate, still many breast cancer patients are being diagnosed in a later stage as locally advanced breast cancer mainly due to delayed diagnosis.
Aims: To find out any relation between low education and low socio economic status with delayed diagnosis resulting in locally advanced breast carcinoma.
Settings and Design: We conducted a comparative study between locally advanced and early breast carcinoma patients admitted in general surgery ward in Govt. TD Medical College, Alappuzha for two years to know if low education and socio economic status is a reason for delayed presentation resulting in locally advanced breast carcinoma.
Materials and Methods: We collected data from July 2014 to June 2016 by personal interview with locally advanced and early breast cancer patients admitted in general surgery ward of Govt. TD Medical College, Alappuzha. Thus obtained data was used to analyse our aims.
Results and Conclusion: We had total 100 patients, 50 with locally advanced and 50 with early breast carcinoma in two year study period. Our study shows that low education and socioeconomic status is associated with delayed presentation leading to delayed diagnosis resulting in locally advanced pattern of breast carcinoma.