The aim of this study was to determine the differences in epidemiological and clinical
manifestations of breast cancer in time of war in Croatia and in peacetime before
and after the war, in the defined population of Po`e{ko-Slavonska County. The methods
used in this study were the evaluation of relative predictive value of variables by means
of
2–test and the analysis of variance, while the survival studies were tested by Long
Rank test according to Kaplan-Meier analysis of survival. This work encompasses 660
patients who had breast cancer. The differences between three time periods were evaluated:
the war period (1991–1995), and two control periods: before the war (1981–1990)
and after the war (1996–2000). The patients were grouped by age, localization of tumor
and survival. During the war period the patients were, on the average, 4.2 years younger
than those who acquired the disease in control periods, and the mean age of patients
was between 50 and 59 years (36.5% of patients). Although the difference in tumor distribution
by sides (left or right breast) and quadrants was statistically significant (war
period vs. control periods; p<0.001), there was no statistically significant difference in
the survival of patients according to the results of Kaplan-Meier analysis of localization
of tumor (p>0.05). The length of survival in terms of age of patients in time of surgical
procedure was significantly different (p<0.001). This study confirms the effects of war
on some epidemiological and clinical manifestation of breast cancer in the defined population
of Po`e{ko-Slavonska County
