Prognostic Significance of Hormonal Receptors in Very Young Women with Early Breast Cancer

Park, Woo Chan; Sung, Kwan Su; Kim, Jeong Soo; Oh, Se Jung; Choi, Seung Hye; You, Young Kyoung; Chun, Hea Myung; Kim, In Chul; Jung, Sang Seol

Abstract

PURPOSE: The prognosis of breast cancer in very young women is generally considered to be unfavorable. In addition, younger patients (<35 years) with estrogen- receptor (ER) positive tumor had shown a significantly worse disease- free survival than younger patients with ER negative tumors. To confirm the prognostic effects of ER on the survival in very young Korean women with early breast cancer, we performed a retrospective study with survival analyses according to the expression of hormonal receptors.
METHODS
Total 74 very young women with early breast cancer (invasive ductal carcinoma, NOS, < or=35 years, and stageRESULTS
The distribution of stage in receptor (+) group (n=52) was stage I 19.2%, stage IIA 46.2%, stage IIB 34.6%, and in receptor (-) group (n=22) 31.8%, 36.4%, 31.8% respectively. Median follow-up period was 76.57 months, 72.93 months in receptor (+) and (-) groups, respectively. 10-year disease-free survival rates were 70.4%, 68.2% (Logrank test, P=0.93) and 10-year overall survival rates were 80.59%, 85.71% (Log rank test, P=0.22) in receptor (+) and (-) group, respectively.
CONCLUSION
Even though the results were not statistically significant, the overall survival of receptor positive group was inferior to that of receptor negative group among the very young premenopausal women with early breast cancer. For the confirmation of the results and better treatment for very young women, a large, prospective case-control study is needed.