Women under 35 years of age(<35yo) account for a small number of breast cancer diagnoses with an approximate incidence of 1.8% of all breast cancer diagnoses [1]. However, it has been observed that while breast cancer incidence is increasing globally in all age categories, the incidence of breast cancer diagnosis in young women is rising at a faster rate than in other age categories [2]. Breast cancer in young women is known to be associated with more aggressive disease and inferior outcomes, thus the need...

Data was acquired from an existing cancer database within the breast department of our tertiary referral hospital. Data of attenders to the symptomatic breast clinic who were <35 years of age at the time of attendance, from 2018-2021 inclusive were identified and anonymised. Exclusion criteria were applied to exclude male gender, and women attending via family/high-risk clinic. The following data was then extracted- Number of patient attendances by year Age at time of attendance to SBC Clinical examination score. Clinical examination score corresponded to clinical...

A total of 5699 women <35yo who attended the symptomatic breast clinic from 2018-2021 were included in this study. On analysis of the attendance numbers by year, a 44% increase in attendance from 2018 [n=1280] to 2021 [n=1845] was observed (fig 1) [Fig 1]. The clinical examination scores are detailed in figure 2 [Fig 2]. There was an increase in the number of patients with a score of E3 from 44.1% to 57.5% from 2018 to 2021 respectively. The incidence of an E5 score was...

Our data shows that increasing numbers of young women are being referred to symptomatic breast clinics. This has resulted in an increased demand for radiological services, despite unchanged and low incidence of breast cancer within this cohort. Half of the patients with a cancer diagnosis were referred with a “likely benign” examination score and thus clinical exam has a low sensitivity in this age group. The reason for the increase in referrals to SBCs is unclear and requires further investigation. Although this is a single-centre...

M. Godson Treacy: Nothing to disclose S. A. O'Keeffe: Nothing to disclose

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