Prognostic factors affecting disease-free survival in patients at age 35 or younger with invasive breast cancer

AIM: Our aim is to determine the disease-free survival (DFS) rate, and to investigate the prognostic factors among patients with invasive breast cancer at age 35 or younger. PATIENTS AND METHOD: The medical records of the 67 patients who underwent surgery for invasive breast cancer were retrospectively reviewed. Potential prognostic factors that affect the DFS were investigated. DFS curves were obtained using the Kaplan-Meier method. The comparisons were made by the long-rank test. The prognostic factors affecting the DFS were determined by stepwise Cox proportional hazard regression test. The P value < 0.05 was accepted as significant. RESULTS: The median age was 32 (range, 23-35). The median follow-up interval was 55 months (range, 10-108). The 5-year DFS rate was 69.3%. In univariate analysis the number of pathologic axillary lymph nodes (p=0.035), triple-negative status (p=0.014) and tumor size (p= 0.004) were found to be the prognostic factors affecting the DFS. The 5-year DFS rate was 81% in non-triple negative patients, whereas this was 35% in triple-negative patients. In the multivariate analysis, triple-negative status was the only independent prognostic factor which affected the DFS adversely (HR: 1.48, CI: 0.66-082, p=0.027). CONCLUSION: Triple-negative status was found to be the only independent and adverse prognostic factor which affects the DFS in patients with invasive breast cancer at age 35 or younger.