Background: In Colombia BC constitutes, after cervix, the second most prevalent cancer location in women and is the first cause of death from cancer in women. There is no local data on the 5-year survival of BC patients in Colombia. It is necessary to define the prognostic factors that have an impact in survival. Methods: Open retrospective cohort study with survival analysis that includes the prognostic factors age, stage at diagnosis, tumor differentiation, metastasis at diagnosis (MaD), metastasis during study period, number of metastasis sites, HER2, axillary nodes, number of affected nodes, estrogenic (ER) and progesterone receptors, treatment with trastuzumab, and hormone therapy. The statistical analysis included Kaplan-Meier test, evaluating survival in relationship with the prognosis variables. Survival distribution was measured by quartiles, and multivariate analyses were performed using the Cox regression. Results: 171 clinical records of the women diagnosed with BC between 2003 and 2008 were reviewed. 50 subjects were <50 years old (29.8%) and 129 (70.2%) were =50 years old. The most frequent type of cancer (84.2%) was infiltrative ductal carcinoma, the most frequent stage was IIA (22.8%), 57.9% of patients were in advanced stage (IIB, IIIA, IIIB, IV), 4.7% had MaD, 12.9% positive for HER2, 56.1% had ER+, 63% had hormone therapy, and 9.9% trastuzumab. During the time of study 23 patients died (13.4%). The presence of estrogen receptors correlates with a longer survival (p=0.015). Patients with affected axillary lymph nodes had a lower survival than those with negative nodes (p= 0.012); Patients with MaD had a significantly shorter survival than those without (p=0.000). Survival was also longer for patients who did not develop metastases (p=0.000). On multivariate analyses, the risk factor most strongly associated to the outcome (death) was the presence of MaD. Conclusions: The factors related with most risk of mortality in our study were the presence of MaD as risk factor and the ER+ as a protective factor.
