Carcinoma of the breast in young women

The clinical records of 111 young women with breast carcinoma aged thirty years and younger have been analyzed with respect to the clinical stage of disease when first seen, the histologic status of the regional lymph nodes, and ten year survival. Survival in these young women with mammary carcinoma is equivalent to that of older women when the cancer is in its earliest stage, Stage A, but only if the regional lymph nodes are free from metastatic disease. Once the regional lymph nodes are involved by cancer, the prognosis for these young women is indeed dismal, with less than 20 per cent ten year survival regardless of clinical stage.