BREAST-CANCER IN WOMEN 35 YEARS OLD OR YOUNGER - CLINICAL AND MAMMOGRAPHIC FEATURES

The purpose of our work was to describe the clinic and mammographic pa tterns of breast cancer in women aged 35 years old or less. From 1980 to 1985, 92 women 35 years old or younger were treated in our institut ion for breast cancer. Their mammograms were reviewed to determine the breast density and to described the mammographic lesion. The clinic e xamination found a palpable breast mass (n = 84), nipple discharge (n = 2), axillary lymph node involvement (n = 3), metastasis (n = 1) or w as normal (n = 2). The mammograms exhibited dense (n = 59), mixed dens e/fatty (n = 29) or fatty (n = 4) parenchymal breast. The mammograms s howed opacity with well-defined (n = 13) or ill-defined borders (n = 3 4), spiculated opacity (n = 11), architectural distortion (n = 13) or were normal (n = 18). The diagnosis of breast cancer in young women is difficult, because mammographic accuracy is less reliable and benign disease is far more prevalent.