ABSTRACT
Objective:To study the clinico-pathologic characteristics, molecular phenotypes, and prognosis of young breast can-cer patients. Methods:Data from 133 low-age (age≤30 years) young breast cancer patients and 117 young (31 years≤age≤35 years) breast cancer patients who underwent surgery between January 2002 and December 2009 were reviewed. Cases of the middle and old-age elderly (age>35 years) breast cancer patients during the corresponding period were randomly selected as matched controls. The clinico-pathologic characteristics, molecular phenotypes, and prognosis were retrospectively analyzed. Results:The low-age young and young breast cancer patients significantly differed from the elderly patients in terms of tumor size, lymph node metastasis, histological grading, molecular phenotype, and relapse (P<0.05). The low-age young patients are more vulnerable to have triple-negative breast can-cer, recurrence, and distant metastasis (P<0.001). Moreover, the low-age young patients have lower overall survival and disease-free survival than the other groups (P<0.05). Conclusion:Young breast cancer patients have poor prognosis compared with the elderly. Ear-ly screening and prompt treatment are necessary for young breast cancer patients.