Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2016 Dec;12(6):4911-4924.
doi: 10.3892/ol.2016.5360. Epub 2016 Nov 7.

Retrospective analysis of breast cancer prognosis among young and older women in a Brazilian cohort of 738 patients, 1985-2002

Fabiana De Lima Vazquez  1 , Thiago Buosi Silva  1 , René Aloísio Da Costa Vieira  2 , Allini Mafra Da Costa  1 , Cristovam Scapulatempo  1 , José Humberto Tavares Guerreiro Fregnani  1 , Edmundo Carvalho Mauad  1 , Adhemar Longatto  3 , Kari Juhani Syrjänen  4
Affiliations

Retrospective analysis of breast cancer prognosis among young and older women in a Brazilian cohort of 738 patients, 1985-2002

Fabiana De Lima Vazquez et al. Oncol Lett. 2016 Dec.

Abstract

Invasive breast cancer (BC) is infrequent among women aged ≤40 years, however, the disease outlook in these younger patients is generally worse than among older women. The present study aimed to compare socio-demographic, clinical and pathological characteristics, and their association with long-term survival, between two random cohorts of young (≤40 years) and older (50-69 years) Brazilian patients with BC. The cohort comprised of 738 randomly selected women who were diagnosed with BC at Barretos Cancer Hospital, Pio XII Foundation (Barretos, Brazil) between January 1985 and December 2002; the patients included young women (n=376) and older women (n=362). The current analysis suggested that BC in young women is associated with numerous pathological features of aggressiveness. Second cancer and bilateral BC were independent predictors of a poor outcome in the younger group. Furthermore, C-erB-2 was positively correlated with poor outcome in the older group, whereas estrogen receptor status and TNM stage were associated with disease prognosis in both groups. The overall survival rates of the two age groups were similar except when analyzed according the treatment period (1997-2002). Although patients aged ≤40 years harbored tumors with more aggressive clinicopathological characteristics, these characteristics were not independent predictors of overall survival. The present study indicates that medical advances associated with prevention of breast cancer may improve screening programs, which may therefore increase early diagnosis and subsequently lower mortality rates.

Keywords: breast cancer; disease outcome; long-term follow-up; prognostic factors; univariate/multivariate survival analysis; young women.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Overall survival rates of younger (n=376) and older (n=362) women with breast cancer.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Overall survival rates of younger (n=208) and older (n=217) women with breast cancer in the treatment period between 1997 and 2002.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Antoni S, Soerjomataram I, Møller B, Bray F, Ferlay J. An assessment of GLOBOCAN methods for deriving national estimates of cancer incidence. Bull World Health Organ. 2016;94:174–184. doi: 10.2471/BLT.15.164384. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Elkum N, Dermime S, Ajarim D, Al-Zahrani A, Alsayed A, Tulbah A, Al Malik O, Alshabanah M, Ezzat A, Al-Tweigeri T. Being 40 or younger is an independent risk factor for relapse in operable breast cancer patients: The Saudi Arabia experience. BMC Cancer. 2007;7:222. doi: 10.1186/1471-2407-7-222. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Fredholm H, Eaker S, Frisell J, Holmberg L, Fredriksson I, Lindman H. Breast cancer in young women: Poor survival despite intensive treatment. PLoS One. 2009;4:e7695. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0007695. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Anders CK, Johnson R, Litton J, Phillips M, Bleyer A. Breast cancer before age 40 years. Semin Oncol. 2009;36:237–249. doi: 10.1053/j.seminoncol.2009.03.001. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Musolino A, Bella MA, Bortesi B, Michiara M, Naldi N, Zanelli P, Capelletti M, Pezzuolo D, Camisa R, Savi M, et al. BRCA mutations, molecular markers, and clinical variables in early-onset breast cancer: A population-based study. Breast. 2007;16:280–292. doi: 10.1016/j.breast.2006.12.003. - DOI - PubMed