Young Women With Breast Cancer in Brazil: A Population‐Based Study Epidemiology of Breast Cancer in Young Women

Abstract

Background: Worldwide, breast cancer is the most frequent cancer in woman. The incidence in young women has been increasing in the last decade, mainly in developing countries. The aim of this study was to report the incidence of breast cancer in young patients (≤ 40 y) from 2007 to 2014 in a poor region of Brazil. Results: There were a total of 660 cases within a period of 8 years, with an average of 82 cases per year, and with median age of 36 years, ranging from 16 to 40 years. The most frequent cases were invasive carcinoma of no special type (87%), stage II (34.2%), positive for the progesterone receptor (PR, 51.6%), and for estrogen receptor (ER, 59.1%) and positive familial history of cancer (44.5%). These patients are mainly from the urban area (90%) and poorly educated (66.6% completed elementary school). Significant differences were observed for overall survival for the independent variables: age group (p = 0.012), clinical staging (p< 0.001), PR (p= 0.003), ER (p= 0.029) and pregnancy (p= 0.021). No significant difference was found between the survival curves of patients HER2+ or HER2-. The standardized rates for age (ASR) per 100,000 was 3.0-5.3%, which is low when compared to the Global Cancer Observatory (ASR 8.3%) or Brazil (ASR 10.8%). Conclusion: although the incidence of young women has increased in the country, especially in the study region, it has remained stable in the population studied in the last 8 years.