AGE AS AN INDEPENDENT PROGNOSTIC FACTOR IN BREAST CANCER

Introduction:Breast cancer is the commonest cancer among females in both developed and developing countries [1]. In the field of breast cancer, in most of the articles, young woman is defined to be below the age of 35 or the age of 40 [2].The results of the National Population-Based Cancer Registry Program in Egypt, showed that, among females, the proportion of breast cancer was 32 % of all female cancers [3]. In study applied in Gharbia over 10 years (1999-2008), the result was that the majority of breast cancer cases during the study period were diagnosed among women aged 40 ? 49 years (31.8%) and among women aged 50?59 years (29.8%) [4] one decade younger than the corresponding age in western countries. Patients and methods:This was a retrospective study in which the records of patients presenting with breast carcinoma who were admitted to the unit of Surgical Oncology and to the Clinical Oncology and Nuclear Medicine department, Alexandria Main University Hospital from January 2000 to December 2009 were collected. Results: There was higher incidence of hormone positive tumors in older patients with a significant difference statistically (p 0.001 for ER receptors and p 0.010 for PR receptors). there is a significant reduction in the disease-free survival (p <0.001) and overall survival (p <0.001) in patient who developed breast cancer before 40 years. Conclusion: Hormone-positive tumors are more common in patients older than 40 years which may indicate a better prognosis in this age group.Younger age at diagnosis of breast cancer is an adverse prognostic factor for relapse of the disease even when effective adjuvant therapy is given. This based on disease free survival and overall survival are worse in young age group.