Women under age 30 who are diagnosed with breast cancer during pregnancy are more than three times as likely to die from the disease as breast-cancer patients who have never been pregnant, Texas researchers report.

The study of 407 women ages 20 to 29 also showed an adverse effect of recent pregnancy on breast-cancer survival.

The shorter the time between a pregnancy and a cancer diagnosis, the greater the risk of dying from the disease, researchers from the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Can cer Center in Houston reported in this week's issue of the medical jour nal Lancet.