Annals of Surgical Oncology Sign the Guestbook
HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS
10.1245/s10434-006-9345-9
Annals of Surgical Oncology 14:3385-3391 (2007)
© 2007 Society of Surgical Oncology
This Article
Right arrow Full Text
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Kim, J. K.
Right arrow Articles by Ahn, S. H.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow Articles by Kim, J. K.
Right arrow Articles by Ahn, S. H.

Original Article

Do Very Young Korean Breast Cancer Patients Have Worse Outcomes?

Jeong Kyeung Kim, MD, Beom Seok Kwak, MD, Jung Sun Lee, MD, Soo Jung Hong, MD, Hee Jeong Kim, MD, Byung Ho Son, MD, PhD and Sei Hyun Ahn, MD, PhD

Department of Surgery, University of Ulsan, College of Medicine, Asan Medical Center, Seoul 138-040, Korea

Correspondence: Address correspondence and reprint requests to: Byung Ho Son, MD, PhD; E-mail: brdrson{at}korea.com

Background: In general, Korean women with breast cancer are younger than white women. We have compared the clinicopathologic characteristics and prognosis in very young and less young premenopausal Korean women with breast cancer.

Methods: Of the breast cancer patients treated at the Asan Medical Center in Seoul, Korea, from 1989 to 2002, 381 (9.6%) were younger than 35 years of age (the "very young" group) and 2320 were 35 to 50 years of age (the "less young" group). We retrospectively compared the clinicopathologic factors and survival rates of these two groups.

Results: The very young group with lymph node metastases had poorer 5-year survival (69.9% vs. 82.7%, P = .0063) and disease-free survival (58.1% vs. 74.1%, P < .0001) rates than their older counterparts. In addition, the very young group had more advanced-stage disease (P = .001), higher T stage (P = .001), and more positive lymph nodes (P = .024) than did their older counterparts, as well as higher percentages of estrogen receptor–negative disease (48.2% vs. 42.1%, P = .047), progesterone receptor–negative disease (53.5% vs. 44.1%, P = .002), and grade 3 histology (52.1% vs. 43.5%, P = .011) tumors.

Conclusions: Compared with older premenopausal Korean women with breast cancer, those younger than 35 years old had a poorer prognosis as a result of a higher rate of recurrence, a later stage at diagnosis, and more aggressive disease. Thus, in Korean breast cancer patients, age younger than 35 years was an independent predictor of recurrence.

Key Words: Breast cancer • Young age • Prognosis






HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS
Copyright © 2007 by the Society of Surgical Oncology.