Clinical and Pathological Characteristics of Breast Cancer Among Emirati National Patients.

Introduction: Breast cancer is the most frequent cancer among Emirati women and is the second leading cause of death among women in the UAE. To date, published studies regarding breast cancer in the UAE have investigated a mixed population of different ethnicities with a low percentage of UAE nationals. This is the first study to highlight the clinical and pathological data of a large cohort of exclusively Emirati national breast cancer patients diagnosed at a tertiary care medical facility.

Materials and methods: This is a retrospective study involving breast cancer patients in UAE women who were evaluated and/or treated at the Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi during the period from May 2015 until June 2021.

Results: This study initially included 372 participants. The median age at diagnosis was 48 years (24-86 years) and 12.3% of patients had screening detected tumors. 30% of patients presented with locally advanced disease and 20% had stage IV disease at presentation. 24% were 40 years or younger at the time of diagnosis.

Discussion: To our knowledge, this is the largest study to date focusing exclusively on the presentation and characteristics of Emirati women with breast cancer. The median age of incidence was 48 years and the percentage of patients diagnosed with breast cancer at age 40 or younger years was 24%. This is an agreement with data published in the Middle East, but is significantly below what is reported in Caucasian women in the Western world. In this study, Emirati patients presented with advanced stages of disease. More advanced disease, and higher stage 4 at presentation is another reflection of the low screening rates, but also an indication of a higher patient thresholds for reporting breast health concerns to medical professionals for evaluation.

Conclusion: Findings of our study do suggest the need to focus efforts on continuing to understand the exact presentation of breast cancer among Emirati women and underscore the need to pursue efforts to improve public education, increase screening utilization and early detection to reduce the burden of disease and address an essential health care need for this unique population.