SABCS 2011: Biological differences in breast cancer cases due to age

For more videos from SABCS 2011 and on breast cancer visit ecancer.org/tv

The clinical director of the breast oncology centre at Dana-Farber, Dr Ann Partridge, explains the differences, biologically, medically, and emotionally, in young women with breast cancer as compared to older women with breast cancer. While there is no one concrete difference between the two cases, evidence suggests that the tumour biology is different in younger and older women.

Younger women are more commonly diagnosed with triple negative breast cancer and, in general, with more aggressive types of breast cancer. There is an increased prevalence of hereditary breast cancer in younger women, as it tends to develop earlier. Dr Partridge stresses that the effect and treatment, medically and emotionally, is very different in the age groups and each case should be considered with this information.

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Science & Technology

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• dana farber
• breast cancer
• cancer
• oncology
• psycosocial
• sabcs 2011