Exploring differences in breast disease characteristics: Bahrain and Russia in focus

Objective . Breast diseases involve several entities. The majority are noncancerous. Some of these lesions are innocent, and reassurance would be enough without any surgical intervention. Others may increase the risk of malignancy, such as atypical hyperplasia, epitheliosis, borderline phyllodes, and lobular carcinoma in situ (LCIS), and need close observation. Malignant lesions, including invasive ductal or lobular carcinoma, ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS), and other sporadic cancers, including malignant phyllodes, account for 20% of breast diseases in total. The study aimed to compare breast diseases in two countries in Asia, Bahrain and Russia, in 2022. Material and methods . A retrospective descriptive comparative study of 200 female breast cancer patients, whose ages ranged from 14 to 76 years old. 100 patients were in group A from Bahrain and 100 in group B from Russia. Data was collected in a pre-structured form. It included: age, complaints, physical examination, laterality, location, diameter of the lesion by ultrasound, Birads categorisation, investigations, pre- and post-operative diagnosis, and surgical procedure performed. Results . The results were analyzed using SPSS (version 27). The study included 200, The most common complaint was a painless breast lump in 73% & and 56% in group A and group B, respectively. A palpable breast lump: 74 (74%) of Group A and 87 (87%) of Group B. The most common location is in the UOQ: 57% of Group A and 56% of Group B. Age range in Benign conditions was: 14–71 years in Group A, and 18–75 in Group B. Malignant conditions were diagnosed in group A between the ages of 36 and 76, and in group B, the range was between 27 and 60 years. Most patients were diagnosed with tumors less than 30 mm, but group B had more patients than group A, 92% and 74%, respectively. Group A had significantly more cases in BI-RADS 2 (44%) and BI-RADS 5 (3%), while Group B showed higher proportions in BI-RADS 3 (41%) and BI-RADS 4 (42%). Breast U/S is the first imaging tool. Core biopsy was used more in group B than in group A. Fibroadenoma was diagnosed more commonly in group B (79%) than in group A(56%). Breast cancer was diagnosed in 17 cases in group A and 2 cases in group B. The surgical procedures performed for benign conditions: excision biopsy in 59% of Group A (59%), while wide local excision was the main procedure in Group B (86%). For malignant conditions, Group A had more cancer surgeries (17 cases) compared to Group B (2 cases), with oncoplastic wide local excision being the most common approach in Group A (16 out of 17). Mastectomy rates were very low and similar in both groups (1 case each). Conclusion . In conclusion, the study revealed that the majority of the cases in both groups had benign breast disease, where fibroadenoma was the most frequent. Most tumors were discovered to be less than 30 mm in diameter. Breast imaging was more than 40% in Bi-Rads 2 in Group A and 3 and 4 in Group B. The surgical procedures were mostly excision biopsy for benign conditions and wide local resection for malignant conditions.