Breast cancer that occurs in young women is likely to be more aggressive and to require more intensive types of therapy with increased risk of long-term treatment-related toxicities.
The unique and significant challenges and psychosocial concerns that women under 40 years of age with breast cancer face are discussed in a special article published in Journal of Adolescent and Young Adult Oncology (JAYAO), a multidisciplinary peer-reviewed publication from, Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers. JAYAO is the official journal of the Society for Adolescent and Young Adult Oncology. The article is available free on the JAYAO website until May 29th, 2015.
In the article "Breast Cancer in Young Women: Research Priorities. A Report of the Young Survival Coalition Research Think Tank Meeting",* the authors describe these young women affected by breast cancer as an "understudied population," as they are under-represented in clinical trials.
As a result, robust data on the biological, clinical, and psychosocial aspects of breast cancer in young women are lacking, and such data are needed to develop better interventions that can lead to improved patient outcomes.