Treatment results and patient characeristics for breast cancer patients older than 70 Years

Abstract

Objective: The incidence of breast cancer (BC) subtypes varies according to age, and its treatment is more strenuous and requires much more attention in advanced ages. The aim of this study is to investigate patient characteristics and treatment results respectively for patients older than 70 years. Materials and Methods: In this study, we examined 188 elderly BC patients treated in our hospital, at March 2008 - November 2019. Patient characteristics and demographics were investigated from patients’ files retrospectively.  Results: Mean age of the patients was 74.3 ± 4 years (All female). The presence of comorbid diseases was 76.1%. Major histology was invasive ductal carcinoma in 72.9% and mostly grade 2 differentiated, and the majority of patients were T2 size (58.5%). Oestrogen receptor (OR) positivity was seen in 83%, Progesterone receptor (PR) positivity in 72.3% of patients and cerb2 positivity in 16.5%. Luminal B (47.9%) was the most common in molecular subgroup analysis. Patients with lymph node involvement (N1 33%; N2, 19.1%; N3, 6.9%) were higher than those without involvement (34%). Surgery type was modified radical mastectomy (MRM) for 51.6%, breast conserving surgery (BCS) for 39.4 % and lumpectomy for 7.4%. In a median follow-up time was 53.9 (9-101) months, local recurrence was seen in 5 (2.7%) patients and distant metastasis was developed in 16 (8.5%) patients. The median overall survival was worse in those with MRM than those with BSC (p=0.006). In multivariate logistic regression analysis, only found that lymph node positivity was an independent risk factor for metastasis (HR; 4.15, 95% CI:1.019-16.933, P=0.047). Conclusion: While it was observed that the most important risk factor for metastasis risk in elderly patients was lymph node positivity; The hormonal status and her2 conditions were not affected in terms of metastasis. It was thought that tumor clinical course and relapse may differ in the elderly population compared to general BC patients.