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Epidemiology

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Breast Cancer in Young Women

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Abstract

Young women with breast cancer constitute a relative minority of the overall breast cancer population. In recent years, this group has been recognized as having distinct and significant disease, treatment, and psychosocial issues throughout the cancer care continuum, warranting attention both from a care and research standpoint. Consensus guidelines have defined young in this context as aged 40 and younger at diagnosis of breast cancer, acknowledging that age is a continuum and concerns accentuated by young age may occur in some older women (Partridge et al., Breast 23:209–220, 2014; Paluch-Shimon et al., Breast 26:87–99, 2016). This chapter describes the epidemiology of breast cancer among young women, including differences in disease features and treatment patterns, risks for developing breast cancer at a young age, and issues that may arise in the course of their care because of their young developmental stage including fertility, body image, sexual health concerns, as well as role functioning including parenting, employment, and education.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Dana–Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA

    Philip D. Poorvu & Ann H. Partridge

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  1. Philip D. Poorvu
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  2. Ann H. Partridge
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Correspondence to Ann H. Partridge .

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  1. Breast Unit, San Raffaele University and Research Hospital, Milan, Italy

    Oreste Gentilini

  2. Dana–Farber Cancer Institute Department of Medical Oncology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA

    Ann H. Partridge

  3. Geneva University Hospitals Swiss Group for Clinical Cancer Research (SAKK), Institute of Oncology of Southern Switzerland, Bellinzona, Switzerland

    Olivia Pagani

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Poorvu, P.D., Partridge, A.H. (2020). Epidemiology. In: Gentilini, O., Partridge, A.H., Pagani, O. (eds) Breast Cancer in Young Women. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-24762-1_1

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