[Effect of postoperative pregnancy upon prognosis of young breast cancer patients].

Objective: To examine the effect of postoperative pregnancy upon the prognosis of young Chinese breast cancer patients.

Methods: Four hundred and thirty-two female unilateral breast cancer patients aged 35 or younger were retrospectively reviewed. Kaplan-Meier analysis and Log Rank test were used for univariate analysis of factors predictive of disease-free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS). Multivariate analysis was carried out using the Cox proportional hazards model.

Results: Eighteen patients were identified to have postoperative pregnancy, including 5 full-term pregnancy and 13 abortions with the earliest pregnancy taking place at Month 17 post-operation. After a median follow-up of 62 months (6 - 237 months), the DFS and OS rates were 72.5% (313/432) and 88.7% (383/432) respectively. On multivariate analysis, postoperative pregnancy, clinical stage and number of pathologically involved axillary lymph node were significantly associated with DFS. And the axillary lymph node status was also predictive of OS. No death occurred in patient with postoperative pregnancy. There was no significant association between postoperative pregnancy and OS.

Conclusion: Postoperative pregnancy has no adverse effect upon the prognosis of young breast cancer patients.