Significantly more poorly differentiated tumors found in younger women.

2004 DEC 2 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Oncologists in Australia compared breast cancer diagnosis in younger women (

"Records were retrieved for 239 women diagnosed with breast cancer before age 40 and compared with 2,101 women aged 40 and over with breast cancer," according to the study.

"On mammography, lesions in the younger women were more likely to be undetected or interpreted as benign, especially in women with dense breasts. However, there were 10 young women where impalpable cancers with microcalcification under 10 mm would not have been diagnosed without mammography," said L.M. Foxcroft and colleagues, Wesley Breast Clinic, Toowong.

"An abnormality was detected on ultrasound in 92.2% of cancers in young women, but was more likely to be considered benign than in older women. If ultrasound alone had been used in the young women, at least 18 cancers would have been missed," the researchers reported.

They noted, however, that "ultrasound was useful for predicting the ultimate tumor size at pathology and for detecting multifocality. There were 14 cases where the ultrasound appearance was indistinguishable from fibroadenoma."

The data, Foxcroft and associates suggested, ...