A Three Year Retrospective Study of Carcinoma of Breast in Young Females at Davangere

Background: Carcinoma of the breast is the most common cancer in women in many of the western countries and becoming the leading cancer in developing countries such as India. Cancer breast in women younger than 30 years of age is rare and is particularly of more concern because of the special considerations such as pregnancy, fertility and sexuality.

Objective: The objective of this study is to evaluate the incidence of cancer breast in women aged less than 30 years and to study the prognostic factors in patients treated in our institute and to compare the same with national and international statistics.

Methods: cancer breast statistics was collected from the medical records department of our institute, the pathological data concerning the type of tumor, stage, grade, lymphnode involvement was collected from the department of pathology and the data was tabulated, evaluated and compared with the national and international statistics.

Results: in our study the incidence of cancer breast in 30 years and less than 30 years of age is 4.67% with the mean age of 27+/-3.8, mean tumour size was 4.4+/-1.2cms, lymph node metastasis was seen in 60% of patients, mean number of lymph nodes positive for metastasis was 6.14+/-1.87, most common histological type of tumour being infiltrating ductal carcinoma (60%) and the most common histological grade was grade 2 in 60% of patients.

Conclusion: carcinoma of breast is quite commoner in young women less than 30 years and has got an unfavourable prognosis and hence the diagnosis has to be kept in mind while evaluating for a breast lump in younger patients.