Summary

Evidence suggests that breast cancer in younger women may be clinically and etiologically distinct from older women [Bleyer A et al. Nat Rev Cancer 2010]. Breast cancer in young women demonstrates a worse prognosis and a more aggressive phenotype, higher proportions of high-grade and later-stage tumors, lower estrogen receptor positivity, and, in some studies, higher expression of human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 [Bleyer A et al. Nat Rev Cancer 2010; Gnerlich JL et al. J Am Coll Surg 2009]. This article presents data on the response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy in women with breast cancer who are aged =35 years compared with older women.