Early breast Cancer in Elderly: A Retrospective Study

Background and objectives: Breast cancer (BC) is the most prevalent cancer
among women, both in terms of incidence and mortality. Breast cancer in
elderly patients present unique challenges that have led to their
underrepresentation in clinical research and trials. This underrepresentation
raises critical concerns regarding the outcomes of the disease for this group of
patients. The main goal of the current study is to determine the different factors
affecting the outcome of the disease.
Methods: This is a retrospective cohort study which included elderly female
patients (aged ≥65 years) with early breast cancer (stage I, II and III tumors)
who received systemic therapy at Medical Oncology Department of South
Egypt Cancer Institute, Assiut University in the period between 2013 to 2018.
The data was gathered through patients’ physical files and electronic health
records
Results: A total of 156 early breast cancer cases were recorded, with a median
age of 68 years. One-hundred and eleven (71.2%) patients were estrogen
receptor (ER) positive BC, one hundred and five (67.3%) were progesterone
receptors (PR) positive. At five years of follow-up, obesity, nodal metastasis,
extracapsular extension (ECE), ER, and PR negativity affect the overall survival
(OS) and disease-free survival (DFS) among the studied participants. The COX
regression analysis also demonstrates that the presence of nodal metastasis,
ECE, ER negativity, and PR negativity are significantly bad prognostic factors
for death and recurrence of the disease.
Conclusions: Our research shows that at five years of follow-up, obesity, nodal
metastasis, ECE, ER, and PR significantly affect the overall survival (OS)
among the studied participants and also affect the disease-free survival (DFS)
among the studied participant.