Spatiotemporal Analysis of Breast Cancer Incidence: A Study in Southern Portugal Between 2005 and 2012

To characterize the spatiotemporal patterns of breast cancer (BC) incidence in females in the area with the highest incidence rate (IR) of the country in 2005-2012.The BC-IR was studied using mapping techniques, analysis of spatiotemporal clusters and analysis of spatial variations in temporal trends.The overall BC-IR was 119.13/105 inhabitants. The annual BC-IRs were 17.7, 156.9, 213.3 and 232.9/105 inhabitants for women diagnosed at <40, 40-49, 50-64 and ≥65 years of age. This IR increased overall (by 4.113%/year) and for the four age groups (by 5.935, 3.833, 4.114 and 2.194%/year, respectively). In patients with locoregional and metastatic disease, the IRs were 93.6 and 7.4/105 inhabitants, increasing by 6.976 and 0.303%/year, respectively. Several spatiotemporal clusters and two spatial-variations in temporal trends were detected. The Lisbon region showed high IR clusters for most groups.This study identified critical areas of high IR and increasing trends for female BC-IR, providing evidence of heterogeneities in this area.