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

• Published in: PloS one Vol. 16; no. 12; p. e0261258
• Main Authors: Lin, Kung-Hung, Hsu, Huan-Ming, Hsu, Kuo-Feng, Chu, Chi-Hong, Hong, Zhi-Jie, Fu, Chun-Yu, Chou, Yu-Ching, Mehra, Golshan, Dai, Ming-Shen, Yu, Jyh-Cherng, Liao, Guo-Shiou
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Public Library of Science 30.12.2021; Public Library of Science (PLoS)
• Subjects: Age; Aged; Aged patients; Biology and Life Sciences; Breast cancer; Breast Neoplasms - pathology; Cancer therapies; Care and treatment; Disease-Free Survival; Electronic health records; Endocrine therapy; Female; Hazard assessment; Hospitals; Humans; Kaplan-Meier Estimate; Lymph nodes; Lymph Nodes - pathology; Lymphatic system; Mammography; Mastectomy; Medical diagnosis; Medical prognosis; Medical records; Medicine and Health Sciences; Multivariate Analysis; Neoplasm Recurrence, Local - pathology; Neuroendocrine tumors; Older people; Patient outcomes; Radiation therapy; Radio frequency identification; Retrospective Studies; Surgery; Survival; Survival Analysis; Taiwan; Womens health; Taiwan
• ISSN: 1932-6203; 1932-6203
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0261258

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.