Breast Cancer in Women Aged 25 Years and Younger

Abstract

Breast cancer diagnosis in women aged 25 years and younger is uncommon; however, these patients present at a more advanced stage, with a higher grade, and exhibit poorer survival.

OM.Breast Cancer in Very Young Women Aged 25 Year-Old or Below in the Center of Tunisia and Review of the Literature

“…The Li-Fraumeni syndrome caused by germline mutations in the p53 gene and Cowden syndrome caused by a mutation in the PTEN gene are rare syndromes accounting also for hereditary breast cancers [19]. In one series of 28 patients aged less than 25, genetic testing for BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutations was performed in 12 patients and mutations were found in 25 % of them [6]. The positive family history of breast and/or ovarian cancer is the most important predictor of increased likelihood to be carrier of BRCA mutation especially if the affected family member is a first degree relative, diagnosed less than 50 years or had bilateral breast cancer [19,20].…”

“…Very young women are more likely to have local recurrences, higher failure rates both with mastectomy and breast conservation and to have a poorer overall survival compared to their older premenopausal counterparts [6,18,19]. A high mortality rate is observed among women aged less than 25 years: 69 % experienced recurrence and died of their disease in a series including 15 women [4] and 5-year disease-free survival was 66.5 % in another study of 13 women [7].…”

“…Previous reports have shown that the very rare breast cancer occurring before 25 years-old doesn't differ from young women aged less than 35 or 40 in terms of family history, pathology and prognosis [4,7] and that there are no significant differences regarding histological subtype and HR status in comparison to premenopausal women older than 25 [6]; but whether patients in their early twenties are special cases remains unclear given the rarity of studies and the small number of specimens.…”

“…The cut off age limit to designate the patient as young is different and most of the series treating this subject have examined breast carcinoma in young women under 35 [4]. Few series [4,[6][7][8][9] have addressed the topic of breast cancer occurring in women in their teens or early 20s. These studies have revolved around limited number of cases with the largest series to date by Alipour S et al [9] in which 55 women were evaluated.…”

Fator prognóstico da idade no câncer de mama

“…A proporção de casos com graduação histológica 3 pela escala de Bloom e Richardson varia entre 59 e 64%, sendo essa característica associada a maior mortalidade pela doença 8,9 . Dimitrakakis et al referem predomínio do grau histológica 3 pela escala de Bloom e Richardson em mulheres com câncer de mama em idade inferior a 25 anos e também uma menor sobrevida 10 . São também relatadas frequências significativamente mais elevadas de aneuploidia entre os casos com menos de 40 anos comparados às pacientes com idade mais elevada (78 contra 58%) e, também, maior proporção de células neoplásicas com marcadores de proliferação celular (48 contra 26%) 3 .…”