Objective To study the influence of postoperative chemotherapeutic regimens on menstruation in pre-menopausal patients with breast cancer. Methods 120 pre-menopausal patients with breast cancer from Jan 2010 to Dec 2012 were followed-up. The occurrence rate and recovery rate of chemotherapy-induced amenorrhea (CIA) were analyzed. The relationship between different chemotherapeutic regimens and CIA of various age groups was analyzed. Results 120 women were followed-up, 94 (78.3 %) patients developed CIA. The frequency of CIA in younger patients (≤ 35 years) was significantly lower than that in patients older than 35 years (P < 0.05). 50 (53.2 %) patients returned to normal menses. The recovery situation of CIA was significantly different among various age groups (P < 0.05). The difference of the occurrence rate of CIA was not statistically significant between the patients who received anthracycline-based chemotherapy and docetaxel-based chemotherapy (P > 0.05). Conclusions Age is an important influence factor of the CIA. Chemotherapy has less influence on the menstruation of younger patients (≤35 years) and most amenorrhea is reversible. The effects of sequential addition of taxanes in chemotherapy and anthracyclines alone on menstruation have no significant difference.

Objective To retrospectively analyze the clinical and pathological characteristics of breast cancer in women ≤ 40 years of age.Methods One hundred and thirty one young (≤ 40 years) female patients with breast cancer pathologically confirmed in the General Hospital of PLA from January 1 st 2008 to December 31st 2012 (young group) were collected,and 262 elderly (41-69 years) female patients with breast cancer in the same period (old group) were collected as control using the random number table method.The clinicopathological characteristics involved TNM staging,histological grade,the expression levels of estrogen receptor (ER),progesterone receptor (PR),human epidermal growth factor receptor-2 (Her-2) and clinical stage of the two groups were contrastively analyzed.Results Compared with elderly patients,young female patients with breast cancer had lower positive rate of ER or PR (64.9％ vs.76.7％;x2 =6.171,P =0.013),higher positive rate of Her-2 (26.7％ vs.15.3％;x2 =7.415,P =0.006) and higher histological grade (grade Ⅱ 38.2％ vs.35.1％;grade Ⅲ 55.7％ vs.49.6％;x2 =6.835,P=0.033).There were no significant differences in T stage (x2 =1.764,P =0.623),N stage (x2 =0.129,P =0.988),clinical stage (x2 =4.916,P =0.178),molecular subtype (x2 =7.475,P =0.058) and different surgical procedures (x2 =0.913,P =0.339) between the two groups.Conclusion Young (≤ 40 years) female patients with breast cancer have specific clinical and pathological characteristics including higher histological grade,higher positive rate of Her-2,lower positive rate of ER or PR and higher degree of malignancy,who should be diagnosed and treated as soon as possible.