Breast cancer in 65-year-old or older patients: clinicopathological characteristics and prognosis

Abstract

Background: The number of 65-year-old or older patients with breast cancer is increasing. Here we describe the clinicopathological features and prognosis of these patients.

Patients and methods: We reviewed the records of 1,651 consecutive patients aged > 50 years with a first diagnosis of invasive breast cancer who were referred to surgery between March 1999 and December 2005. Of these patients, 224 were aged ≥ 65 years (group I) and 1,427 were aged 51-64 years (group II).

Results: Compared with patients of group II, patients of group I had a higher percentage of tumors classified as estrogen receptor (ER) positive (p = 0.009), progesterone receptor (PR) negative (p = 0.044), and with a Ki-67 labeling index ≥ 20% of the cells (p = 0.015). There was no difference between the 2 groups for pT, pN, histology, endocrine therapy, radiotherapy, and chemotherapy. The 5-year survival of group I was 80.1% as compared with 86.2% for group II (p = 0.018).

Conclusion: Compared with patients aged between 51 and 64 years, patients aged ≥ 65 years have a greater chance of having tumors that are ER positive, PR negative, with a Ki-67 labeling index ≥ 20% of the cells and a significantly poorer prognosis.