Survival improvement in hormone-responsive young breast cancer patients with endocrine therapy.

Purpose: We investigated the oncologic outcomes by intrinsic subtype and age in young breast cancer patients and whether survival differences were related to treatment changes over time.

Methods: A retrospective analysis was performed on 9633 invasive breast cancer patients treated at Asan Medical Center from January 1989 to December 2008. We also enrolled a matched cohort adjusting for tumor size, lymph node metastasis, subtypes, and tumor grade.

Changing patterns in the clinical characteristics of Korean patients with breast cancer during the last 15 years.

Hypothesis: Breast cancer has become the most common cancer in Korean women in recent years, with continuously increased incidence rates attributed to westernized lifestyles.

Design: Retrospective case series evaluating the changing patterns of clinical characteristics in breast cancer during the last 15 years.

Setting: Hospitalized patients with breast cancer in a university medical center.

Prevalence of BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutations in Korean breast cancer patients.

The incidence of breast cancer in Korea has been increasing in recent years, such that it is now the most common female cancer. Breast cancer in Korea is characterized by an earlier age of onset than in Western countries, suggesting that it would be related with genetic background. We assayed germline mutations in the BRCA genes to evaluate their genetic pathology in Korean breast cancer patients.