title: [Clinicopathologic characteristics and prognosis in young Chinese women with breast cancer].
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To analyze the clinicopathologic characteristics and evaluate the prognosis in young Chinese women with breast cancer.
  
  
  METHODS
  A total of 1538 female patients with operable primary breast cancer (stage I-III) treated at our hospital from December 1994 to December 2003 were analyzed retrospectively. Among them, 1075 patients (≤ 60 yrs) with the complete follow-up data were divided into two groups according to age: young breast cancer group (≤ 40 yrs, n = 208) and control group (41 - 60 yrs, n = 867) to analyze the differences in their clinicopathologic characteristics and evaluate the prognosis of both groups.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The patients with young breast cancer were more likely to have positive lymph nodes (P = 0.016), a negative expression of ER (estrogen receptor) (P = 0.016) and a positive expression of HER2 (P = 0.001). The 5-year disease-free survival (DFS) rates of young breast cancer group and control group were 73.3% and 84.1% (P < 0.001) and the 5-year overall survival (OS) rates 83.5% and 89.1% (P = 0.004) respectively. Moreover, the patients with young breast cancer had a worse DFS than control group in patients with stage I-II disease but not in those with stage III disease. And ≤ 40 years was an independent unfavorable prognostic factor of DFS (HR = 1.78, 95%CI: 1.19 - 2.66, P = 0.005) and OS (HR = 1.71, 95%CI: 1.01 - 2.90, P = 0.046) in the patients with stage I-II disease.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Chinese women with young breast cancer have a worse prognosis, particularly in those with stage I-II disease.
authors.affiliation: Breast Center of Beijing Cancer Hospital, Peking University School of Oncology, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Xin
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Qi-feng
authors.initials: QF
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Ye
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.forename: Tao
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Ouyang
authors.forename: Jin-feng
authors.initials: JF
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Tian-feng
authors.initials: TF
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Zhao-qing
authors.initials: ZQ
authors.lastname: Fan
authors.forename: Tie
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Fan
authors.forename: Ben-yao
authors.initials: BY
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.forename: Yun-tao
authors.initials: YT
authors.lastname: Xie
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D044466:Asian People; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000473:pathology*; D002681:China; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D011379:Prognosis; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D015996:Survival Rate