Endocrine therapy alone vs. chemotherapy plus endocrine therapies for the treatment of elderly patients with endocrine-responsive and node positive breast cancer: a retrospective analysis of a multicenter study (Anatolian Society of Medical Oncology).

PURPOSE: The extra benefit of adding chemotherapy to effective endocrine therapy (ET) has not been clearly or consistently identified in patients older than 70 years with estrogen receptor (ER) positive and node positive breast cancer. The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of adjuvant ET vs. chemotherapy plus endocrine therapies (Chemo/ET) in such patients.

METHODS: In this retrospective multicenter study 191 patients ≥ 70 years with operated hormone receptor breast cancer, who were administered adjuvant ET or Chemo/ET were assessed.

RESULTS: The median patient follow-up time was 29.0 months (range 1-252). Therefore disease free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS) analysis was limited, due to the rather short median follow-up, and only 30-month cumulative percentages are reported herein. The 30-month DFS rates were 50.0% in the ET arm and 49.0% in the Chemo/ET arm (p=0.79). The 30-month OS rates were 86% in the ET arm and 96.0% in the Chemo/ET arm (p=0.08). Cox proportional hazard model showed that only surgery was independent prognostic factor for survival (p=0.047), while tumor size showed a strong trend for statistical significance (p=0.051).

CONCLUSION: The addition of chemotherapy to endocrine therapy in older patients has no significant impact on DFS and OS.