Histopathological pattern of breast carcinoma in different age groups

Background: Breast cancers tend to be more aggressive in younger patients and some histopathological types like medullary, mucinous and tubular variants have a better prognosis. This study describes the histopathologic pattern and tumour grade of breast carcinoma in younger patients. Methods: This was a retrospective analysis of all consecutive breast cancer specimens submitted to the histopathology department of Federal Medical Centre Gombe during the study period. The data was analyzed with EPI Info 2002 using simple means and percentages. Results: A total of 167 cases of breast carcinoma in 164 females were reviewed with three patients having bilateral disease. The age range of the study population was 22-75 years with a mean age of 44+/-11.7 years. One hundred and twenty seven patients (76%) were aged less than 50 years while the rest were above 50 years. A total of 133 tumours were invasive ductal carcinomas, 107(80.45%) of which were in the premenopausal age group and 26(19.55%) in post menopausal age. One hundred and six patients (63.5%) had low grade tumours (grades 1 and 2) while 61(36.5%) had high grade tumours (Grades III and IV tumours). Forty three (70.5%) of these high grade tumours were seen in premenopausal age group. Eleven patients had invasive lobular carcinoma of which 4(36.4%o) were premenopausal while 7(63.6%) were post menopausal. Conclusion: It is concluded that younger patients tended to frequently have aggressive and high grade disease