Breast-conserving surgery in 201 very young patients (<35 years).
BACKGROUND
Surgical treatment of breast cancer in very young patients (<35 years) is still a matter of debate, since age is a predictive factor of local recurrence after breast conservation.


METHODS
We retrospectively evaluated outcome and prognostic factors of 201 consecutive patients treated with breast conservation followed by whole breast irradiation between 1997 and 2004 with special attention paid to local control. The average follow up was 72 months (range 13-133 months).


RESULTS
The mean age was 32 years (Range 20-34). Invasive ductal carcinoma was found in 175 (87.1%) patients. Two (1%) patients had invasive lobular carcinoma. One-hundred and eighteen patients (58.7%) had tumors of 2 cm or smaller. Sentinel lymph node biopsy was performed in 105 (52.2%) patients. One-hundred and ten (54.7%) patients had node-negative disease, 68 (33.8%) patients had 1-3 positive nodes and 23 (11.4%) +4 positive nodes. Eighteen patients (9.0%) developed a local recurrence, 25 (12.5%) developed distant metastases and 23 patients (11.4%) died during follow up. The 5- and 10-year cumulative incidence of local events were 8.2% and 12,3% respectively. The univariate analysis did not identify any variables affecting local disease-free survival.


CONCLUSIONS
Breast conservation in very young patients achieves an acceptable local control rate. No prognostic factors were associated with local events.
Gentilini
Oreste
O
Division of Breast Surgery, European Institute of Oncology, Via Ripamonti 435, Milan, Italy. oreste.gentilini@ieo.it
Botteri
Edoardo
E
Rotmensz
Nicole
N
Toesca
Antonio
A
De Oliveira
Helio
H
Sangalli
Claudia
C
Colleoni
Marco
M
Intra
Mattia
M
Galimberti
Viviana
V
Veronesi
Paolo
P
Luini
Alberto
A
Veronesi
Umberto
U
D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000401:mortality / Q000601:surgery*; D018572:Disease-Free Survival; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007558:Italy / Q000453:epidemiology; D015412:Mastectomy, Segmental / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D011379:Prognosis; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D021701:Sentinel Lymph Node Biopsy / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D016387:Women's Health; D055815:Young Adult