Introduction: Ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) is rarely diagnosed in young female patients; moreover, most studies view age as a poor prognostic factor.Patient and Methods: We included female patients who underwent surgery for DCIS of the breast (with or without microinvasion) in our department from February 2007 to February 2022.We divided patients into two groups: group I (under 40 years old) and group II (40 years old and above).Our aim was to evaluate and compare clinical-epidemiological, pathological, radiological, operative, and outcome data between the two groups.We sought to test the idea that young age in DCIS patients is a poor prognostic factor that may require more aggressive treatment.Results: One hundred sixty-two patients were included in the current study.The mean age was 51.8 years.20.1% of patients were younger than 40 years.The commonest symptom, reported in 79.3% of cases, was a breast lump.The final pathology was pure DCIS in two-thirds of patients.Microinvasion was present in the remaining third.Recurrence occurred in 11 patients (6.7%).Tumor size, grade, histologic subtype, ER status, pathological multicentricity, type of surgery, and recurrence were not statistically significant (p-values = .223,.097,.68,.41,.37, 1, .23,respectively).Disease-free survival was not significantly different between the two groups (p-value = 0.3).However, the use of magnetic resonance imaging and breast reconstruction was more common in the younger age group (p-values = .039and <.001, respectively).Conclusion: One-fifth of our patients with DCIS were less than 40 years old, and recurrence was quite uncommon.The use of breast-conserving surgery is increasing in our community, but it is still underutilized.Notably, MRI and breast reconstruction were more common in the younger group.As the outcomes were similar between groups, more aggressive treatment for younger DCIS patients is not justified.
Abdallah et al. (Wed,) studied this question.