Clinicopathologic characteristics and prognosis of young patients with breast cancer.

BACKGROUND: The aim was to describe the clinicopathological features and prognosis of young patients with breast cancer. PATIENTS AND METHODS: We reviewed the records of 1478 consecutive patients aged ≤50 years with first diagnosis of invasive breast cancer referred to surgery from January 1999 to March 2005. A total of 174 patients were aged <35 years (group I) and 1304 were aged 35-50 years (group II). RESULTS: Compared with patients of group II, patients of group I had a higher percentage of tumors classified as estrogen receptors (ER) negative, progesterone receptors (PR) negative, with a Ki-67 labeling index ≥20% of the cells. The 5-year survival of group I was 78.3% as compared with 84.2% for group II (P = 0.006). CONCLUSION: Compared with patients aged between 35 and 50 years, patients aged <35 years have a greater chance of having an endocrine-unresponsive tumor and a significantly poor prognosis.