Introduction

Breastcancer is a major health burden worldwide. It is most common cancer among women in both high–resource and low–resource settings and is primary cause of cancer death among women globally. There is at least 10–fold variation in breast cancer incidence worldwide. Most rapid rises are seen in developing countries. According to recent GLOBOCANproject(year 2012), recent trend of breast cancer in India are worrisome. This includes–rising numbers of breast cancer cases in India,age shift (more young ladies affected),late presentation (directly decreases long term survival of the patient),lack of awareness and screening,andaggressive cancers in young(generally, the younger the age below menopause, the more aggressive the cancer).

Methods

Retrospectively data wereanalyzed from hospital medical records according to predetermined plan of study.Two groups were made, one of young breast cancer patients with age less than 40 years and the other of older breast cancer patients with age more than 40 years. Variables in relation to risk factors,clinicopathologicfeatures,biomarker expression levels and treatment modes were analyzed between two groups in relation to outcome.

Result

Present study is a retrospective analysis done of 1274 patients of breast cancer treated between January 2006 to December 2008 at Kidwai Memorial Institute of Oncology. Out of which,data of 96 patients were found to be incomplete and hence were excluded from analysis. Out of 1178 studied patients, 344 patients (29.20%) were younger than 40 years. The analysis showed that young patients had a greater median tumor diameter at presentation (3.5 cm),higher lymph node positivity(60.20%),higher LVI (52%),higher perinodal invasion(42%), and higher distant metastasis(10%). Triple negative cancers (TNBC) were higher in young patients(41%). Higher number younger patients underwent breast conservation surgery (BCS) and completed adjuvant chemotherapy and radiotherapy.

Conclusion–

Incidence of breast cancer in young women is increasing in India and has been found to be more aggressive than breast cancer presenting in old age group. The aggressive nature is because of late presentation of disease, high grade of disease, high prevalence of poor histopathological factors and high risk biomarker expression levels.