Outcome of patients with breast cancer in the oldest old (≥80 years).

PURPOSE: In the present study, we present a large institutional study to determine the influence of age≥ 80 years on breast cancer presentation and prognosis. METHODS: The study is a retrospective analysis of our prospectively maintained breast cancer database study using data from of women managed from January 2007 through December 2013. Clinicopathologic characteristics were correlated with outcomes according to age (<80 years and ≥ 80 years). RESULTS: During the study period, 2083 women with invasive breast cancer were included of which 160 women aged ≥ 80 years (7.7 %). Overall survival was lower in the oldest old than in younger counterparts (p < 0.0001) as was distant metastasis free survival (p = 0.004). Differences in management included more radical surgeries and less chemotherapy and radiotherapy in case of age≥ 80 years. By multivariate analysis, age ≥ 80 years was an independent predictive factor of poor overall survival. CONCLUSION: In the present study, age ≥ 80 years was an independent predictive factor of poor overall survival.

Intrinsic and extrinsic flaws of the nomogram predicting bone-only metastasis in women with early breast cancer: An external validation study.

BACKGROUND: The recently developed MDACC nomogram purports to predict the risk of bone-only metastasis in women with early breast carcinoma based on five clinical and pathological characteristics. We set out to externally validate and assess its robustness using a tertiary breast cancer centre database. METHODS: All consecutive women treated for early breast cancer in our centre between January 1989 and December 2013 and who had all the nomogram variables documented were eligible for analysis. RESULTS: We identified 1255 eligible women for external validation analysis. The median follow-up was 54 months (range: 1-312) and time to initial metastasis 20 months (range: 1-80). The correspondence between the actual bone-only metastasis and the nomogram predictions implied poor calibration of the nomogram in the validation cohort, be it in the whole cohort or when stratified by breast cancer subtype. CONCLUSION: This external validation study of the MDACC nomogram showed limitations in its generalizability to a new and independent European patient population.