Quality of Life of Elderly and Senile Patients with Hormone Receptor Positive Breast Cancer Using Primary Endocrine Therapy

Abstract

Introduction. Elderly and senile patients are a special category of patients and standard methods in breast cancer treatment are not suitable due to the frequent presence of serious comorbidities and personal preferences and concerns about treatment options. Аn available treatment option for these patients with hormone-receptor positive breast cancer may be the primary endocrine therapy (PET).The objectivewas to assess the quality of life of patients treated by PET or surgical treatment with adjuvant endocrine therapy (ET) and identifying the reasons of choosing a conservative treatment strategy.Methods and materials.Our study included 65–89-year-old patients with hormone-receptor positive breast cancer with stages I–II, some of whom received only endocrine therapy (ET) (n=20), and others are prescribed adjuvant ET after surgical treatment (n=20). Quality of life was assessed by analyzing the EORTC QLQ C-30 and QLQ-BR23 questionnaires filled in by patients at different stages of treatment. An analysis of outpatient records was carried out to identify the reasons for choosing a conservative treatment strategy.Results. The choice of conservative treatment strategy was justified by the presence of a serious concomitant pathology in 65 % of cases. Performing breast surgery was associated with a decline in the quality of life in the postoperative period.Conclusions. PET is an alternative treatment option for some of the elderly patients with hormone-receptor positive breast cancer, since it has similar results in overall survival compared to standard complex treatment (surgery + adjuvant ET), but also does not make the quality of life worst during treatment.