Survival outcomes in elderly Taiwanese women according to breast cancer subtype and lymph node status: A single-center retrospective study

PLoS One. 2021 Dec 30;16(12):e0261258. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0261258. eCollection 2021.

Abstract

This study aimed to determine the rates of overall survival and recurrence-free survival among elderly Taiwanese women (>65 years old) according to breast cancer subtype and lymph node status. We identified 554 eligible patients who were >65 years old and had been treated based on international recommendations at our center between June 2005 and June 2015. Patients with the luminal A subtype had the highest rates of overall survival (90.6%) and recurrence-free survival (97.0%), while the lowest overall survival rate was observed in those with the triple-negative subtype (81.3%) and the lowest recurrence-free survival rate was observed in those with the luminal B subtype (84.0%). Multivariate Cox proportional hazard analysis, using the luminal A subtype as the reference, revealed significant differences in recurrence-free survival among luminal B patients according to lymph node status. Among elderly Taiwanese women with breast cancer, the breast cancer subtype might help predict survival outcomes. The luminal B subtype was associated with poor recurrence-free survival, and lymph node status was useful for predicting recurrence-free survival in this subset of patients.

MeSH terms

  • Aged
  • Breast Neoplasms / pathology*
  • Disease-Free Survival
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Kaplan-Meier Estimate
  • Lymph Nodes / pathology*
  • Multivariate Analysis
  • Neoplasm Recurrence, Local / pathology
  • Retrospective Studies
  • Survival Analysis
  • Taiwan

Grants and funding

The authors received no specific funding for this work.