[Clinical characteristics and prognosis of very young patients with breast cancer in the southern of China]

Abstract

Background and objective: Even though most breast cancers occur in postmenopausal women in western countries, age <35 is one of the prognostic factors. This study was to compare the clinicopathologic characteristics and prognosis between premenopausal breast cancer patients aged of <35 and > or =35 in south China, and to explore the prognostic factors.

Methods: A total of 905 consecutive premenopausal patients were evaluated, with first diagnosis of breast cancer referred to surgery at the Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center from October 2003 to December 2006. The clinicopathologic factors and the survival rates between the very young group(aged of <35 at diagnosis) and the non-young group(aged of > or =35 at diagnosis) were retrospectively compared.

Results: The overall median follow-up time was 27.77 months. The 3-year disease-free survival rate was significantly lower (78.0% vs. 89.1%, P<0.001) and the 3-year survival rate relatively lower(94.3% vs. 96.8%, P=0.10) in the very young group than in the non-young group. In addition, the 3-year survival and disease-free survival rates were significantly lower in the very young group with HR (hormone receptor)-positive than in the non-young group (P<0.05). The univariate and multivariate analysis of clinicopathologic characteristics between two groups showed that age <35 at diagnosis, axillary lymph node involvement, presence of vascular invasion, and high expression of Ki67 were risk factors for recurrence.

Conclusion: Compared with non-young premenopausal patients, very young breast patients with HR-positive cancer have a worse outcome.