Breast cancer in young women treated definitively with radiotherapy. An early report.

Between 1977 and 1982, 34 breast cancers in 33 women aged less than or equal to 35 years were treated with primary radiotherapy following excisional biopsy and axillary lymph node dissection. The records of these cases were reviewed and compared to 156 women greater than age 35 with 157 breast cancers treated similarly during the same time period. Analysis of these cases was limited to patients with invasive cancers who were AJC Stages I or II. In the women less than or equal to age 35, there were only six failures (two with locoregional failure only and four with distant metastases). The treated breast was preserved in all of the younger women except for the two patients with locoregional failure only who were treated for salvage with a mastectomy. The actuarial freedom from breast relapse alone at 3 years was 96% in women less than or equal to 35 years vs. 97% in women greater than 35 years. Freedom from locoregional relapse only was 88% vs. 95% at 3 years in the above groups, and the actuarial disease-free survival at 3 years was 76% vs. 87%, respectively. None of the above comparisons between younger and older women are statistically different. We conclude that definitive radiation therapy for Stages I and II carcinoma of the breast in women less than or equal to age 35 yields similar results to those for women greater than 35. Such treatment achieves excellent preservation of the breast and should continue to be considered as an alternative to mastectomy.