Breast cancer and clinical outcome among women over 60 years of age: a plead for more screening and alternative treatments

To study elderly women > or = 60 years of age diagnosed with breast cancer and analyze this cohort according to death from breast cancer and death due to comorbidities. Patients aged 60-69 years of age were included in routine mammography screening, but not women aged > or = 70 years. This ena...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inAnalytical and quantitative cytopathology and histopathology Vol. 34; no. 4; p. 189
Main Authors Sennerstam, Roland B, Wiksell, Hans, Schässburger, Kai-Uwe, Auer, Gert U
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published United States 01.08.2012
Subjects
Aged
Aged, 80 and over
Breast Neoplasms - diagnostic imaging
Breast Neoplasms - epidemiology
Breast Neoplasms - pathology
Early Detection of Cancer
Female
Humans
Mammography
Middle Aged
Neoplasm Grading
Neoplasm Staging
Sweden - epidemiology
Treatment Outcome
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Summary:To study elderly women > or = 60 years of age diagnosed with breast cancer and analyze this cohort according to death from breast cancer and death due to comorbidities. Patients aged 60-69 years of age were included in routine mammography screening, but not women aged > or = 70 years. This enabled a comparison between the 2 groups regarding screening effect, tumor size and survival in breast cancer. A consecutive sample of 311 breast cancer patients > or = 60 years of age from 1991 were analyzed according to tumor size at diagnosis, frequencies of lymph node metastasis, tumor histological grade and stage, ploidy, proliferation index, stem-line-scatter index and survival rate in breast cancer and other causes of death. Tumor size was compared to a patient group aged 60-69 from 1987, before the introduction of mammography screening in Sweden. In the screening group a significant reduction in tumor size was found at diagnosis compared to the sample from 1987 (p < 0.001) and to the older group > or = 70 years (p < 0.02). In the latter group a higher death rate appeared for breast cancer. Older women would have a better outcome if included in the mammography screening program.