Although by no means the first study to report on the influence of age at presentation of breast cancer on prognosis, the recent report and editorial in the British Medical Journal on this subject are of some interest.
In a multivariate analysis of 10,356 Danish women less than 50 years at the time of diagnosis of breast cancer, the risk of death was found to increase with decreasing age. Amongst women with low risk disease, who did not receive adjuvant systemic (i.e. chemo- or hormono-) therapy, this difference was most pronounced. This has led these authors to conclude that all young women with breast cancer should be regarded as high risk and all should receive appropriate chemo- and hormono- therapy recommendations.
