OBJECTIVE

The aim is to identify the epidemiological and clinicopathological features associated with young breast cancer (BC) patients and to discuss factors affecting tumor recurrence and DFS.

PATIENTS & METHODS: A retrospective analysis was conducted based on medical records from young females patients aged ≤35 years with pathologically confirmed primary breast cancer treated during 2008-2010 at NCI. Cases with non invasive cancer and non carcinoma histology are excluded.

RESULTS

Of the 5408 cases diagnosed with breast cancer, 554 were young. Four hundred & fifty eight patients representing 9.2% were within our inclusion criteria. Almost half of the patients (45.9%) presented with stage III. Axillary nodes involvement was in 63.9%, 83.3% were grade 2. More than one quarter of tumors was hormone receptors negative (28.8%) & Her2 was over-expressed in 30%. Mastectomy was offered in 72% while conservative breast surgery in 26%, 69.2% received chemotherapy either adjuvant, neoadjuvant or both, 82.5% received adjuvant radiotherapy, 68.6% received hormonal therapy. Metastatic disease developed in 51.3%, with 31% having more than one site of metastases. After a median follow up period of 66 months, the median DFS of patients was 60 months. The median DFS was significantly shorter among patients with positive lymph nodes (P < 0.0001), ER negative disease (P = 0.045) and stage III disease (P < 0.0001).

CONCLUSION

Breast cancer in young women is aggressive from the time of diagnosis. Our results provide baseline data of young BC in the Middle East & North Africa region; thus, contributing to future epidemiological and hospital-based researches.