[Breast cancer in women thirty years old or less].
OBJECTIVE
Breast cancer rarely occurs in very young women, its diagnosis and management could sometimes be difficult. Our aim is to analyse the epidemiological and clinicopathological features of a group of very young women and especially to evaluate the results of therapeutic strategy.


METHODS
We report a retrospective study conducted at the department of radiotherapy in Alexis-Vautrin Centre, concerning 30 patients aged < or = 30 years in whom a diagnosis of invasive breast carcinoma was made between 1986 and 2001.


RESULTS
Six patients had familial history of breast cancer. Palpable tumor was found in 90% of cases, the average size was 3.5 cm. Eleven patients presented with stage I, 11 presented with stage II, 6 presented with stage III and 2 presented with stage IV. Five cancers were diagnosed after pregnancy (average tumor size = 5.8 cm). Eleven patients received neoadjuvant chemotherapy and 23 (82%) of 28 operable cases of invasive malignancy underwent breast conservative surgery (BCS). We found an invasive ductal carcinoma with grade III in 13/27 cases and a nodal involvement in a half of cases, 11 patients of 26 had no expression of oestrogen receptor. The average follow-up was 5 years: six patients (20%) recurred locally (all of them were initially treated by BCS), four patients developed a contralateral breast cancer and three developed a second malignancy. Ten patients died of their metastatic disease. The 5-year overall survival rate was 78%.


CONCLUSIONS
Our results are consistent with those of the published reports and suggest that very young women with breast cancer have a poorer prognosis compared with the older ones. They should receive, according to their prognostic factors, an appropriate regional, systemic and hormonal therapy.
Bakkali
H
H
Groupe sein, centre Alexis-Vautrin, 6, avenue de Bourgogne, 54511, Vandoeuvre-lès-Nancy, France. bakkalihanae@hotmail.com <bakkalihanae@hotmail.com>
Marchal
C
C
Lesur-Schwander
A
A
Verhaeghe
J-L
JL
D000328:Adult; D017677:Age Distribution; D000970:Antineoplastic Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000209:etiology / Q000628:therapy; D018270:Carcinoma, Ductal, Breast / Q000453:epidemiology; D003131:Combined Modality Therapy; D005260:Female; D005602:France / Q000453:epidemiology; D020022:Genetic Predisposition to Disease / Q000235:genetics; D006801:Humans; D008197:Lymph Node Excision; D008408:Mastectomy; D020360:Neoadjuvant Therapy; D009364:Neoplasm Recurrence, Local / Q000453:epidemiology; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D010173:Palpation; D018579:Patient Selection; D011379:Prognosis; D011960:Receptors, Estrogen; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012307:Risk Factors; D015996:Survival Rate; D016896:Treatment Outcome
D000970:Antineoplastic Agents; D011960:Receptors, Estrogen