Study Indicates Breast Conservation Not Practiced On Elderly Women.(modified mastectomy procedures ignored in cases with older women)(Brief Article)

2001 SEP 20 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) --

Breast conservation therapy (BCT) with segmental mastectomy and postoperative radiation therapy, with or without axillary lymph node dissection, may be able to provide excellent local control and disease-free survival in elderly women with breast carcinoma, according to a study published in the September 1, 2001 issue of Cancer.

"For those qualified older women who do receive BCT, the treatment is well tolerated and outcomes are very good," comments lead researcher Georges Vlastos, MD, from the Department of Surgical Oncology at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center. However, a lack of information regarding the available treatment options for elderly patients with breast carcinoma, in addition to long-standing medical biases, may be preventing many eligible patients age over 65 years from receiving BCT.

Women age 65 years account for nearly half of all new cases of breast carcinoma and two-thirds of all deaths from breast carcinoma. However, patients ages 65-70 years generally have been excluded from large-scale trials that contribute to the determination of appropriate treatment options for patients with breast carcinoma, a practice that has reinforced long-standing differences between the treatment approaches used for younger women compared with those used for older women diagnosed with breast carcinoma.

A prior study reported that older patients with breast carcinoma were more likely to undergo modified radical mastectomies and less likely to receive additional local therapy or adjuvant systemic therapy, with the exception of tamoxifen, compared with younger patients. To remedy the lack of available information regarding treatment outcomes in elderly women with breast carcinoma, the authors of the current study investigated the efficacy of BCT, an increasingly standard modality of care for patients with early stage breast carcinoma, in treating women age 65 years.

In the current study, the authors analyzed data from 1,325 patients treated with BCT at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center between 1970 and 1994. Of these patients, 184 women who were elderly (age 65 years) and were diagnosed with Stage I-III breast carcinoma were selected for analysis. The median age of the patients at the time of diagnosis was 70 years and 85% of the patients were white. All the patients had been treated with segmental mastectomy and radiation therapy, with or without axillary lymph node dissection.

The median overall follow-up time was 7.3 years. At the time of their last follow-up, ...