Breast Tumors Differ in Women Under 45

Women under 45 develop breast cancer that tends to be more aggressive and less responsive to treatment than cancer in older women, found a U.S. study.

Researchers at the Duke Institute for Genome Sciences & Policy and the Duke University Comprehensive Cancer Center discovered that the tumors found in women under the age of 45 have certain patterns of cellular activity that confer a poorer prognosis in younger women, while the same tumor cell activity in older women confers a better prognosis.

The findings, presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology annual meeting in Chicago, demonstrates the need for age-appropriate targeted therapies.

Lead investigator Dr. Carey Anders focused on women under the age of 45 because they were seeking to gather information specific to premenopausal women.

During the process by which cells change and become cancerous, we saw certain patterns in young women’s tumors that we didn’t see in the tumors found in women over the age of 45, Anders said in a statement. If we are able to inhibit these processes by using drugs — some of which are already available and being used to treat other cancers — we might have a better chance at treating these women more effectively and possibly even curing them.