Breast cancer in young women

Abstract

The pathological features of breast cancer in young women have been reviewed. Between January 1993 and December 1997, 35 women under the age of 40 (range 21-39) have been diagnosed with primary breast cancer. One patient presented with bilateral disease and of the remaining 34, 59% had carcinoma of the right breast. Fine needle aspiration cytology was carried out on 30 patients and either C5 (malignant) or C4 (suspicious) findings were present in 25 (83%) One patient presented with lobular carcinoma, twenty with invasive ductal adenocarcinoma, nine with ductal adenocarcinoma and associated DCIS and five with DCIS only. Of the 29 invasive ductal adenocarcinomas, 18 were Grade 3 (62%), 9 were Grade 2 (31%) and 2 were Grade 1 (7%). When compared with an 'all ages' group, the young patients showed an excess of Grade 3 tumours. No difference in mean tumour size or nodal status was seen between the young patients and the "all ages" group. These histological features are correlated with results of a range of biological tumour markers.