Association of extreme age with worse survival in advanced breast cancer.

Abstract

e11530 Background: Age has been associated with survival in advance breast cancer. In the ALAMO Register prognostic index, older age was associated with mortality. Although recent reports suggest that age below 35 was also associated with worse prognosis. We analysed the impact of extreme ages in survival in an advance breast cancer cohort. Methods: Survival analysis of patients followed in the Advance Breast Cancer Cohort at the Reina Sofia Hospital between 1996-2006. Patients were classified in 4 groups of age: I (< 35), II (35-50), III (51-75) and IV (>75 years). Log-rank test was used to compare survivals between groups. Cases were censored after 5 years of follow-up. A uni and multivariate stepwise regression model was used to estimate factors associated with survival. Results: 212 cases of advance breast cancer were included. Patients’ main characteristics, distributed by age groups, are reported in the Table. Median (IQR) survival was shorter (p=0.01) in group I 12.4 (4.7-25.4) and group IV 10.8 (5.1-19.8) compared to groups II 23.5 (17-29.5) and group III 20.2 (15.2-23.7). Factors independently associated with survival were age groups 1-4 versus 2-3 (p=0.02), histologic grade II-II versus I-unknown (<0.01), disease free interval <24 months versus >24 months (p<0.01) and visceral versus non-visceral metastatic location (p<0.01). Conclusions: Extreme ages (<35 or >75 years) at the diagnosis of the advance breast cancer are associated with worse survival. This factor in addition with the histologic grades, the disease free interval and metastatic location were associated with survival. [Table: see text]