Elsevier

Annals of Oncology

Volume 21, Issue 10, October 2010, Pages 1974-1981
Annals of Oncology

original articles
breast cancer
Prognosis and adjuvant treatment effects in selected breast cancer subtypes of very young women (<35 years) with operable breast cancer

https://doi.org/10.1093/annonc/mdq072Get rights and content
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Abstract

Background: There is limited knowledge about prognosis of selected breast cancer subtypes among very young women.

Patients and methods: We explored patterns of recurrence by age according to four immunohistochemically defined tumor subtypes: Luminal A and Luminal B (estrogen receptor positive and/or progesterone receptor positive and either human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) positive and/or high Ki-67), HER2-positive (and) endocrine receptor absent and Triple Negative, in 2970 premenopausal patients with pT1-3, pN0-3 and M0 breast cancer.

Results: Patients <35 years of age (315, 11%) presented a significantly increased risk of recurrence and death [hazards ratio (HR) = 1.65, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.30–2.10 and HR = 1.78, 95% CI 1.12–2.85, respectively] when compared with older patients (2655, 89%) with similar characteristics of disease. This was true considering patients with Luminal B [HR = 1.62, 95% CI 1.21–2.18 for disease-free survival (DFS) and HR = 2.09, 95% CI 0.96–4.53 for overall survival (OS)] and with Triple Negative (HR = 2.04, 95% CI 1.11–3.72 for DFS and HR = 2.20, 95% CI 1.10–4.41 for OS) breast cancer, observing the highest risk of recurrence in the younger patients with HER2-positive breast cancer (HR = 2.37, 95% CI 1.12–5.02) when compared with older patients.

Conclusions: Very young patients with Triple Negative, Luminal B or HER2-positive breast cancer have a worse prognosis when compared with older patients with similar characteristics of disease.

Key words

adjuvant therapy
breast cancer
prognostic features
very young women

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