Reproductive factors and hormone receptor status among very young (<35 years) breast cancer patients

The prognosis for breast cancer occurs in young women is usually poor. The impact of different reproductive factors on disease characteristics is still largely unknown. We analyzed 261 patients aged ≤35 years old who were treated at the Cancer Hospital of Fudan University, Shanghai, China. The relationships between certain reproductive factors (age at menarche, parity, number of children, breastfeeding, history of abortion, age at first full-term pregnancy and oral contraceptive (OC) use) and disease characteristics were evaluated. Compared with patients who experienced fewer full-term pregnancies (<2 times), the patients with more full-term pregnancies (≥2 times) exhibited higher percentage of ER-positive tumors (61.5%) (P = 0.015), and patients whose age of menarche was ≥15 years exhibited a greater chance of PR-positive tumors (64.8%) (P = 0.036) compared with those whose age of menarche was <15 years old. Additionally, patients who had taken OCs were more likely to present with late-stage tumors (II stage or later) (87.5%) (P = 0.002) than patients who had never taken OCs. Our study provides evidence that women with more full-term pregnancies and later age at menarche are more possible to exhibit hormone receptor-positive tumors. Additionally, patients who have taken OCs are more likely to present with advanced disease.