Abstract Purpose Elderly breast cancer (BC) patients are commonly at risk of under-treatment, which can negatively affect their prognosis. Therefore, we analyzed age-related survival differences considering clinico-pathological parameters among patients with early BC. Methods 8190 BC patients from SUCCESS A, B, and C trials who underwent surgery and adjuvant systemic therapy were analyzed. Tumor and nodal stage, grading, biological subtype, types of surgical and systemic therapies, and other clinico-pathological parameters were compared between age groups ≤ 50 years, 51–65 years, > 65 years (chi-square tests). Breast cancer-free interval (BCFI), breast cancer-specific survival (BCSS), overall survival (OS), invasive disease-free survival (iDFS), and distant disease-free survival (DDFS) were analyzed using univariable and adjusted multivariable Cox regression models. Two-way interactions between age and other clinico-pathological parameters were calculated. Results There were significant differences between the age groups concerning almost all parameters analyzed, especially more advanced tumor stages in the elderly group. Univariable analysis showed significant differences between the age groups for all survival parameters (all p 65 years had poorer survival, multivariable analysis suggests this difference is mostly attributable to advanced tumor stages rather than age itself. Effective BC screening and research related to the influence of (biological) age on response to cancer therapies could be the next step to improve understanding the relationship between patient age and BC survival.
Lukac et al. (Thu,) studied this question.