[Sportschosun, Jang Jong-ho] A study has found that breast cancer patients under 40 have more aggressive tumors than older patients, but their distant metastasis and overall survival rates are similar. The research team stressed that local recurrence, rather than systemic spread, should be monitored more closely.
A research team led by Professor Lee Jang-hee of the Department of Surgery at Ewha Womans University Mokdong Hospital, headed by Director Kim Han-su, recently published its findings in the international journal Acta Oncologica under the title, "Pathological characteristics and prognosis of very young patients with early breast cancer: a comparative analysis with older patients."
The study compared the pathological characteristics and prognosis of 288 breast cancer patients aged 40 or younger and 830 patients aged 55 or older who were treated at two different university hospitals between June 2003 and December 2019. Younger breast cancer patients are generally known to have a poorer prognosis because their tumors tend to be biologically aggressive, but the findings showed a somewhat different picture.
According to the team's analysis, the younger group had a higher proportion of high-grade tumors, which are more aggressive and biologically severe, than the older group. However, there was no significant difference between the two groups in overall recurrence-free survival (RFS) or distant recurrence-free survival (DRFS).
Local recurrence-free survival (LRRFS), however, was lower in the younger group. In particular, among patients with hormone receptor-positive/HER2-negative breast cancer, younger age was identified as an independent risk factor for local recurrence. In this group, the risk of local recurrence was more than four times higher than in older patients.
Professor Lee Jang-hee of the Department of Surgery at Ewha Womans University Mokdong Hospital said, "Young breast cancer patients show more biologically aggressive features because a larger share of their tumors are aggressive in nature, but that does not necessarily mean they have worse outcomes than older patients in terms of distant recurrence or overall survival." He added, "However, because the risk of local recurrence is higher, younger patients need more precise local treatment strategies and close follow-up."
Jang Jong-ho, bellho@sportschosun.com
This article has been translated by GripLabs Mingo AI.
