Background: Breast carcinoma is one of the most commonly identified cancers
in women worldwide, the 5th reason of cancer-related deaths and commonly
affecting older Egyptian females.
Aim: To explore the clinical and pathological characteristics of breast cancer in
elderly women and impact on survival.
Methods: A retrospective study was performed based on medical records of
females who were treated in National Cancer Institute, Cairo University,
Zagazig University Hospitals, and Meet-Ghamr Oncology Center in the period
between January 2012 and December 2016.
Results: The study included 343 breast cancer patients whose age ranging
between 65 and 80 years with mean age 68.8 years. About 85.1% of the studied
cases had no family history of breast carcinoma and 82.8% of them had negative
history of taking oral contraceptive pills (OCP). Associated co-morbidities were
noticed in 57.4% of this group. Our group tends to present with clinical stage II
and III (44.8%), (34%) respectively, with lymph node involvement in (56.6%)
of cases and high percentage of hormone expression [ER-positive (79.6%), PRpositive (76.4%)] while lower frequency to be HER-2 positive (15.5%). Most of
cases (88%) underwent upfront surgery, modified radical mastectomy (MRM)
was the main procedure. The overall survival (OS) rate for the whole study
group at 5 years was 70.7% with median OS 87.1 months, while the DFS rate at
5 years was 81.6% after exclusion of the 21 patients who had metastasis at
diagnosis. Expression of ER and PR was related with better survival.
Conclusion: Breast cancer in elderly patients in our study tends to be diagnosed
at a later stage with best outcome with hormone receptor positive women and
further studies are needed to evaluate better management.