Objective:To understand the trend of occurrence, diagnosis, and prognosis of breast cancer in the cases treated in Peking Union Medical College Hospital (PUMCH) between 1975 and 2006.
Methods:A total of 1092 cases of breast cancer treated in the PUMCH from 1975 to 2006 were classified into six groups by time span and reviewed for a comparative study on the parameters of gender, age, menstruation status, tumor size, mumber of positive axillary nodes,pathologic stage,recurrence and metastasis and  disease-free survival rate.
Results:The average age of breast cancer patient has risen from 50.90 to 53.92, while 40-49 year-old group was the largest age group of breast cancer patients, and the percentage of menopause female was the highest.  Tumor size has gradually been smaller especially since 2000.  The number of positive axillary nodes showed no significant change during the time periods.  In all 6 groups, stage-II cases were more frequent,although the percentage of stage-0 and stage-I cases was on the rise, while the percentage of stage-III declined, and that of stage-IV remained stable.  In all 6 groups, the 5-year and 10-year disease free survival rate had steadily increased.
Conclusions:The early diagnostic rate of breast cancer has been improving and subsequently the prognosis has improved as well.