Breast Cancer in Young Women

Overview

Journal Nat Rev Clin Oncol

Specialty Oncology

Date 2012 Jun 27

PMID 22733233

Citations 82

Authors

Steven A Narod

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

About one in 300 women will be diagnosed with breast cancer before the age of 40. Advances in screening have not had an impact on mortality in women who are too young to be candidates for screening. Risk factors for early breast cancer include a lean body habitus and recent use of an oral contraceptive. Breast cancers in very young women are typically aggressive, in part owing to the over-representation of high-grade, triple-negative tumours, but young age is an independent negative predictor of cancer-specific survival. Very early age-of-onset also correlates strongly with the risk of local recurrence and with the odds of contralateral breast cancer. Given the high risks of local and distant recurrence in young women with invasive breast cancer, most (if not all) young patients are candidates for chemotherapy. It is hoped that by increasing breast cancer awareness, the proportion of invasive breast cancers that are diagnosed at 2.0 cm or smaller will increase and that this will lead to a reduction in mortality.

Citing Articles

Evaluating PREDICT and developing outcome prediction models in early-onset breast cancer using data from Alberta, Canada.

Basmadjian R, Xu Y, Quan M, Lupichuk S, Cheung W, Brenner D Breast Cancer Res Treat. 2025; .

PMID: 40072699 DOI: 10.1007/s10549-025-07654-1.

MGAT4EP promotes tumor progression and serves as a prognostic marker for breast cancer.

Zhong L, Zhu J, Chen J, Jin X, Liu L, Ji S Cancer Biol Ther. 2025; 26(1):2475604.

PMID: 40069131 PMC: 11901376. DOI: 10.1080/15384047.2025.2475604.

Sociodemographic characteristics and health status of women with breast cancer and COVID 19 diagnosis by menopausal status a cross sectional study.

Hajiebrahimi M, Shihan H, Bratt O, Li H, Nyberg F, Wettermark B Sci Rep. 2025; 15(1):2648.

PMID: 39837931 PMC: 11751173. DOI: 10.1038/s41598-025-86710-8.

Pathway to care among adolescents and young adults with breast cancer in Nigeria: a mixed methods study.

Ntekim A, Folasire A, Odukoya O, Sowunmi A, Alabi A BMC Cancer. 2025; 25(1):11.

PMID: 39757152 PMC: 11702269. DOI: 10.1186/s12885-024-13420-1.

Novel models by machine learning to predict the risk of cardiac disease-specific death in young patients with breast cancer.

Li Y, Li H, Ye X, Zhu Z, Qiu Y Discov Oncol. 2024; 15(1):809.

PMID: 39692943 PMC: 11655779. DOI: 10.1007/s12672-024-01676-9.

References

Collins L, Marotti J, Gelber S, Cole K, Ruddy K, Kereakoglow S . Pathologic features and molecular phenotype by patient age in a large cohort of young women with breast cancer. Breast Cancer Res Treat. 2011; 131(3):1061-6. DOI: 10.1007/s10549-011-1872-9. View

Prentice R, Thomson C, Caan B, Hubbell F, Anderson G, Beresford S . Low-fat dietary pattern and cancer incidence in the Women's Health Initiative Dietary Modification Randomized Controlled Trial. J Natl Cancer Inst. 2007; 99(20):1534-43. PMC: 2670850. DOI: 10.1093/jnci/djm159. View

. Prevalence and penetrance of BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutations in a population-based series of breast cancer cases. Anglian Breast Cancer Study Group. Br J Cancer. 2000; 83(10):1301-8. PMC: 2408797. DOI: 10.1054/bjoc.2000.1407. View

Boyd N, Martin L, Stone J, Greenberg C, Minkin S, Yaffe M . Mammographic densities as a marker of human breast cancer risk and their use in chemoprevention. Curr Oncol Rep. 2001; 3(4):314-21. DOI: 10.1007/s11912-001-0083-7. View

Voogd A, Nielsen M, Peterse J, Blichert-Toft M, Bartelink H, Overgaard M . Differences in risk factors for local and distant recurrence after breast-conserving therapy or mastectomy for stage I and II breast cancer: pooled results of two large European randomized trials. J Clin Oncol. 2001; 19(6):1688-97. DOI: 10.1200/JCO.2001.19.6.1688. View

Land C, Tokunaga M, Koyama K, Soda M, Preston D, Nishimori I . Incidence of female breast cancer among atomic bomb survivors, Hiroshima and Nagasaki, 1950-1990. Radiat Res. 2003; 160(6):707-17. DOI: 10.1667/rr3082. View

Gnerlich J, Deshpande A, Jeffe D, Sweet A, White N, Margenthaler J . Elevated breast cancer mortality in women younger than age 40 years compared with older women is attributed to poorer survival in early-stage disease. J Am Coll Surg. 2009; 208(3):341-7. PMC: 3262236. DOI: 10.1016/j.jamcollsurg.2008.12.001. View

Wapnir I, Anderson S, Mamounas E, Geyer Jr C, Jeong J, Tan-Chiu E . Prognosis after ipsilateral breast tumor recurrence and locoregional recurrences in five National Surgical Adjuvant Breast and Bowel Project node-positive adjuvant breast cancer trials. J Clin Oncol. 2006; 24(13):2028-37. DOI: 10.1200/JCO.2005.04.3273. View

Malkin D, Li F, Strong L, Fraumeni Jr J, Nelson C, Kim D . Germ line p53 mutations in a familial syndrome of breast cancer, sarcomas, and other neoplasms. Science. 1990; 250(4985):1233-8. DOI: 10.1126/science.1978757. View

10.

Peralta E, Ellenhorn J, Wagman L, Dagis A, Andersen J, Chu D . Contralateral prophylactic mastectomy improves the outcome of selected patients undergoing mastectomy for breast cancer. Am J Surg. 2001; 180(6):439-45. DOI: 10.1016/s0002-9610(00)00505-5. View

11.

Metcalfe K, Birenbaum-Carmeli D, Lubinski J, Gronwald J, Lynch H, Moller P . International variation in rates of uptake of preventive options in BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutation carriers. Int J Cancer. 2008; 122(9):2017-22. PMC: 2936778. DOI: 10.1002/ijc.23340. View

12.

Nichols K, Malkin D, Garber J, Fraumeni Jr J, Li F . Germ-line p53 mutations predispose to a wide spectrum of early-onset cancers. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev. 2001; 10(2):83-7. View

13.

Ahlgren M, Sorensen T, Wohlfahrt J, Haflidadottir A, Holst C, Melbye M . Birth weight and risk of breast cancer in a cohort of 106,504 women. Int J Cancer. 2003; 107(6):997-1000. DOI: 10.1002/ijc.11481. View

14.

Cil T, Fishell E, Hanna W, Sun P, Rawlinson E, Narod S . Mammographic density and the risk of breast cancer recurrence after breast-conserving surgery. Cancer. 2009; 115(24):5780-7. DOI: 10.1002/cncr.24638. View

15.

Port E, Montgomery L, Heerdt A, Borgen P . Patient reluctance toward tamoxifen use for breast cancer primary prevention. Ann Surg Oncol. 2001; 8(7):580-5. DOI: 10.1007/s10434-001-0580-9. View

16.

Bedrosian I, Hu C, Chang G . Population-based study of contralateral prophylactic mastectomy and survival outcomes of breast cancer patients. J Natl Cancer Inst. 2010; 102(6):401-9. PMC: 4415082. DOI: 10.1093/jnci/djq018. View

17.

Carmichael A, Bates T . Obesity and breast cancer: a review of the literature. Breast. 2004; 13(2):85-92. DOI: 10.1016/j.breast.2003.03.001. View

18.

van der Leij F, Elkhuizen P, Bartelink H, van de Vijver M . Predictive factors for local recurrence in breast cancer. Semin Radiat Oncol. 2012; 22(2):100-7. DOI: 10.1016/j.semradonc.2011.12.001. View

19.

Goffin J, Chappuis P, Begin L, Wong N, Brunet J, Hamel N . Impact of germline BRCA1 mutations and overexpression of p53 on prognosis and response to treatment following breast carcinoma: 10-year follow up data. Cancer. 2003; 97(3):527-36. DOI: 10.1002/cncr.11080. View

20.

. Breast feeding and risk of breast cancer in young women. United Kingdom National Case-Control Study Group. BMJ. 1993; 307(6895):17-20. PMC: 1678503. DOI: 10.1136/bmj.307.6895.17. View