The influence of surgical approaches [including mastectomy, breast-conserving therapy (BCT) and post-mastectomy breast reconstruction (PMBR) on prognosis of young women (<40 years old) with operable breast cancer has not been determined yet, and this might vary in patients with different marital statuses. Therefore, we aimed to investigate the effect of surgery on survival outcomes for young women with operable breast cancer in different marital statuses.
We used the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) database to identify young women with operable breast cancer between 2004 and 2016, who underwent mastectomy, BCT or PMBR. We assessed overall survival (OS) and breast cancer-specific survival (BCSS) using the Kaplan–Meier method and hazard ratios using multivariate Cox proportional hazard regression.
Compared to mastectomy, both of BCT and PMBR conferred better OS (BCT: HR = 0.79, 95%CI: 0.69–0.90, p <0.001; PMBR: HR = 0.70, 95%CI: 0.63–0.78, p <0.001) and BCSS (BCT: HR = 0.79, 95%CI: 0.69–0.91, p = 0.001; PMBR: HR = 0.73, 95%CI: 0.65–0.81, p <0.001), but there was no significant difference of survival between BCT and PMBR group. The survival benefit of BCT compared to mastectomy remained significant in unmarried young women (OS: HR = 0.68, 95%CI: 0.55–0.83, p <0.001; BCSS: HR = 0.69, 95%CI: 0.56–0.86, p = 0.001) but not in the married (OS: HR = 0.89, 95%CI: 0.75–1.05, p = 0.177; BCSS: HR = 0.89, 95%CI: 0.75–1.05, p = 0.161), while no matter married or not, PMBR group had better OS and BCSS than mastectomy group but not BCT group.
Both of BCT and PMBR had improved survival compared to mastectomy for young women with operable breast cancer. The survival benefit of BCT compared to mastectomy remained significant in unmarried patients but not in married patients.