Comparison of pathologic characteristics of breast cancer in younger and older women

BACKGROUND: Breast cancer is the most common invasive cancer with high mortality in women all around the world. The present evidence shows that younger patients have poor survival. Thus, the aim of this study was to compare the pathologic characteristics of breast cancer in women younger than 40 years compared with older. METHODS: This is a cross-sectional study which contains 681 patients with a confirmed diagnosis of breast cancer, who referred to Babolsar Shahid Rajaei Hospital as a referral cancer therapeutic center in the North of Iran. The data included age, residence area, occupation, location, histopathologic characteristics of the tumor, TNM classification and staging. RESULTS: The mean age (SD) of patients was 49.7 (11.9) years, of which 19.5% were under 40. Ductal carcinoma was the most common histopathologic type (90.0%) but patients at a younger age had a higher incidence of lobular and other rare carcinoma compared to the older ones (P=0.04). The younger had a greater tumor size (P=0.01), lymphatic node involvement (P=0.04) and higher staging (P=0.004). The younger age was not associated with positive estrogen/progesterone receptors. CONCLUSION: These findings indicated more aggressive tumor characteristics and serious breast cancer in women less than 40 years compared with older ones.