Characteristics of women with breast cancer seen at reference services in the North of Minas Gerais.

Objective: To describe the main characteristics, including stage of disease and local treatment of patients admitted to two reference services for the treatment of breast cancer in the North of Minas Gerais.

Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional descriptive study. We evaluated medical records of 288 female patients with breast cancer admitted between January 2006 and December 2009, referred from a public hospital and a private clinic.