A retrospective analysis of 418 breast cancer patients was done to investigate the differencies in survival, in clinical and in histopathological variables between the different age groups giving special attention to young women. Three age groups were used, young (age less-than-or-equal-to 40 years), middle-aged (41-50 years) and elderly women (>50 years). The tumours in young women had high mitotic activity (p<0.001), high S phase fraction (p=0.025), dense lymphocyte infiltration (p=0.027), high nuclear variable values (p=0.020-0.042), bilateral disease (p=0.001) and low estrogen receptor content (p=0.013) as compared with other age groups. The prognosis of patients under the age of 40 was more unfavorable than their middle-aged counterparts (p=0.0207). The young women have more rapidly proliferating breast tumours than the middle-aged or the elderly women, and moreover the tumours are often bilateral.

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