Breast Cancer in Young Women Under 40 at the Mohammed VI Oncology Center

Author(s): Mohamed Amine Doumir, Si Mohamed ennachit, Oumaima Wajih

Objective: Breast cancer in young women is unusual and has specific epidemiological, diagnostic and prognostic features. It is generally associated with a genetic predisposition, unlike its counterpart in older women, and is mainly linked to reduced survival and higher recurrence rates. The aim of the study was to examine the epidemiological, clinicopathological and biological features.

Patients and methods: This was a retrospective study involving 119 female patients aged 40 years or younger, who underwent surgery for breast cancer between January 2017 and December 2019 at the Onco- Gynecology Department of the Mohammed VI Cancer Center. With histologically attested infiltrating breast cancer.

Results: The mean age was 37 years, with fluctuations between (21-40) years. The mean tumor size was 4.2 cm, ranging from 1 to 10 cm. In 89% of cases, it was an infiltrating ductal carcinoma, with SBR grade II in 61.45% of cases. It was associated with N0 lymph node involvement in 53.77% of cases. Negative hormone receptors (HR) were found in only 30% of cases. 50 patients showed HER2 overexpression, for ki 67 growth index was greater than 15% in 96 biopsies, i.e. a percentage of 83.5%. In our study, triple-negative tumors accounted for 24.19% of cases analyzed.

Discussion and conclusion: The occurrence of breast cancer is high in young Moroccan women. In our situation, it is differentiated by a delay in diagnosis which justifies the progression of the disease at the time of diagnosis. Biological characteristics are generally more aggressive, including higher histological grade, absence of hormone receptors and higher frequency of triple-negative tumors, which considerably reduce treatment options.