title: [Immunophenotype and evolution of breast carcinomas: a comparison between very young and postmenopausal women].
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The objective of this study was to evaluate the clinical, pathological and molecular characteristics in very young women and postmenopausal women with breast cancer.
  
  
  METHODS
  We selected 106 cases of breast cancer of very young women (<35 years) and 130 cases of postmenopausal women. We evaluated clinical characteristics of patients (age at diagnosis, ethnic group, family history of breast cancer, staging, presence of distant metastases, overall and disease-free survival), pathological characteristics of tumors (tumor size, histological type and grade, axillary lymph nodes status) and expression of molecular markers (hormone receptors, HER2, p53, p63, cytokeratins 5 and 14, and EGFR), using immunohistochemistry and tissue microarray.
  
  
  RESULTS
  When comparing clinicopathologic variables between the age groups, younger women demonstrated greater frequency of nulliparity (p=0.03), larger tumors (p<0.000), higher stage disease (p=0.01), lymph node positivity (p=0.001), and higher grade tumors (p=0.004). Most of the young patients received chemotherapy (90.8%) and radiotherapy (85.2%) and less tamoxifen therapy (31.5%) comparing with postmenopausal women. Lower estrogen receptor positivity 49.1% (p=0.01) and higher HER2 overexpression 28.7% (p=0.03) were observed in young women. In 32 young patients (29.6%) and in 20% of the posmenopausal women, the breast carcinomas were of the triple-negative phenotype (p=0.034). In 16 young women (50%) and in 10 postmenopausal women (7.7%), the tumors expressed positivity for cytokeratin 5 and/or 14, basal phenotype (p=0.064). Systemic metastases were detected in 55.3% of the young women and in 39.2% of the postmenopausal women. Breast cancer overall survival and disease-free survival in five years were, respectively, 63 and 39% for young women and 75 and 67% for postmenopausal women.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Breast cancer arising in very young women showed negative clinicobiological characteristics and more aggressive tumors.
authors.affiliation: Programa de Pós-graduação em Patologia Mamária, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, MG, Brasil.
authors.forename: Mara Costa
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Dutra
authors.forename: Marina Alvarenga
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Rezende
authors.forename: Victor Piana
authors.initials: VP
authors.lastname: de Andrade
authors.forename: Fernando Augusto
authors.initials: FA
authors.lastname: Soares
authors.forename: Márcio Ventura
authors.initials: MV
authors.lastname: Ribeiro
authors.forename: Elbio Cândido
authors.initials: EC
authors.lastname: de Paula
authors.forename: Helenice
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Gobbi
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics* / Q000276:immunology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D016130:Immunophenotyping; D008875:Middle Aged; D017698:Postmenopause; D055815:Young Adult