Clinical Characteristics and Prognosis of Young Age (35 year old or younger) onset Breast Cancer

Min, Youn Ki; Kim, Jong Han; Cho, Seong Jin; Kim, Nam Ryeol; Koo, Bum Hwan; Whang, Cheung Wung; Bae, Jeoung Won

Abstract

PURPOSE: The question of whether "young age onset" is a single prognostic factor for breast cancer has been controversial. The incidence of breast cancer according to age differs by region and races. The purpose of this study was to determine the incidence of breast cancer in women 35 year old or younger and elucidate its clinical characteristics, prognosis, and differences from older age onset breast cancer.
METHODS
A retrospective study of 545 consecutive breast cancer patients who had been treated at our hospital from 1990 to 1999, was conducted. We investigated the ratio of 35 year old or younger breast cancer patients, age of menarche, TNM stage, histologic grades, hormone receptor status, survival rates. This was then compared with the counter age (>35) group's data. The significances of the differences were evaluated by variable type using the Student's t-test or chi-square test. Analysis was performed using SPSS software.
RESULTS
The younger age group patients numbered 62 (11.3%) among the total group, and showed earlier menarche, worse histologic differentiation, and lower mammographic detection rate than the counter group (P<0.05). There were no differences in TNM stage distribution or hormone receptor expression status according to age group (P>0.05). The young age group's 5 year overall and disease free survival rates were 83 5% and 58 8% respectively and both were lower than the counter group's 89 2% and 74 3% (P<0.05), respectively additionally, the age adjusted overall and disease free survival rates were worse than the counter age group's.
CONCLUSION
The younger age group showed worse survival rates, poorer prognostic factors and a higher late of early relapse rate than the older age group. Therefore, we may consider "young age onset" to be a poor prognostic factor in breast cancer.