Abstract
We analyzed the clinical characteristics and prognosis of early pregnancy-associated breast cancer (PABC). In this matched case-control study, the PABC patients and non-PABC patients were recruited from Hebei Breast Disease Treatment Center in a ratio of 1:2, involving 40 PABC patients (10 pregnant women, 30 postpartum women) diagnosed between January 2011 and December 2017, and 80 non-PABC patients with matched tumor staging, age (±3 years), and year of diagnosis (± 2 years). The pathological characteristics, disease-free survival (DFS), and overall survival (OS) were compared between the groups. The first gravidity age in PABC patients was significantly older than that of non-PABC patients (26.8 years vs. 23.5 years, P < 0.05). Categorized by receptor status, the ratio of hormone receptor (HR)-positive breast cancer was lower in PABC patients than in non-PABC patients (57.5% vs. 70.0%, P = 0.221), while the incidences of HER2− (42.5% vs. 37.5%, P = 0.692) and triple-negative breast cancer (20% vs. 12.5%, P = 0.578) were higher in PABC patients than in non-PABC patients, although no significant differences were detected. Compared with non-PABC patients, PABC patients delivered the first gravidity at an older age, but showed no differences in pathological characteristics, DFS, and OS.
Acknowledgement
We would like to acknowledge Yunjiang Liu and Huixin Zhang for their assistance and guidance.
Author contributions
Zhifen Yang: Conceptualization, visualization, investigation, writing - review and editing, project administration. Yanshou Zhang and Chunyang Wang: Data curation, writing – original draft, conceptualization, and project administration. Lijia Du and Yingru Liu: Data curation.
Data availability statement
The data supporting the findings of this study are available at: [DOI:10.7910/DVN/SR06ED].
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Ethic approval
This was a retrospective, non-interventional study that did not require ethical review. This research was exempted from ethics commission approval as treatment was administered as a part of the services offered by the hospital.