Although breast cancer (BC) incidence is lower in African-American women compared with White-American, in African countries such as Nigeria, BC is a common disease. Nigerian women have a higher risk for early-onset, with a high mortality rate from BC, prompting speculation that risk factors could be genetic and the molecular portrait of these tumours are different to those of western women. In this study, 308 BC samples from Nigerian women with complete clinical history and tumour characteristics were included and compared with a large series of BC from the UK as a control group. Immunoprofile of these tumours was characterised using a panel of 11 biomarkers of known relevance to BC. The immunoprofile and patients' outcome were compared with tumour grade-matched UK control group. Nigerian women presenting with BC were more frequently premenopausal, and their tumours were characterised by large primary tumour size, high tumour grade, advanced lymph node stage, and a higher rate of vascular invasion compared with UK women. In the grade-matched groups, Nigerian BC showed over representation of triple-negative and basal phenotypes and BRCA1 deficiency BC compared with UK women, but no difference was found regarding HER2 expression between the two series. Nigerian women showed significantly poorer outcome after development of BC compared with UK women. This study demonstrates that there are possible genetic and molecular differences between an indigenous Black population and a UK-based series. The basal-like, triple negative and BRCA1 dysfunction groups of tumours identified in this study may have implications in the development of screening programs and therapies for African patients and families that are likely to have a BRCA1 dysfunction, basal like and triple negative.

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Objective: To document general baseline data on the patterns of childhood malignant tumours at a teaching hospital in south‐western Nigeria. Design, setting and participants: A retrospective study of childhood malignancy at Olabisi Onabanjo University Teaching Hospital, Sagamu, Nigeria, during an 11‐year period, from January 1996 to December 2006. Results: 77 children were diagnosed with malignant tumours (an average of seven diagnoses per year); 46 were boys (60%), giving a male‐to‐female ratio of 1.5 : 1. The age distribution of patients was 1–18 years. There were 42 diagnoses (55%) in the 1–5‐year age group and 68 malignancies (88%) were diagnosed at ages of 12 years or younger. Lymphomas were the most prevalent malignancy identified, accounting for 31 diagnoses (40%). Burkitt's lymphoma constituted the majority of malignancies (28 cases; 36%), followed by retinoblastoma (16 cases; 21%) and nephroblastoma (11 cases; 14%). Other malignancies included germ cell tumours (6), neuroblastomas (4), osteosarcomas (3), rhabdomyosarcomas (3) and non‐Hodgkin's lymphomas (3). One case each of medullary thyroid carcinoma, adenocarcinoma of the rectum, invasive mucinous carcinoma of the colon were also identified. Conclusion: These data suggest that Burkitt's lymphoma is the most common childhood malignant tumour in our geographic area of south‐western Nigeria. With the rising incidence of childhood malignancy in resource‐poor countries, measuring the baseline occurrence of such tumours is imperative to provide much‐needed resource allocation.

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