Clinical characteristics and outcomes in elderly women with BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutations

Abstract

ObjectiveDescribe clinical characteristics and risk reducing strategies utilized among women with a BRCA mutation who lived to age 75 and above. MethodsA retrospective study of women with BRCA mutations identified from 1995 to 2015 in a California health care system. From a database of 1189 women, 69 participants were identified who lived to age 75 or older. Demographic and clinical characteristics were recorded, as well as cancer history and risk-reducing strategies utilized. Descriptive and bivariate analyses were used to analyze the cohort. ResultsThe median age of the cohort at study entry was 78 (IQR: 76–84) and the median age at time of genetic testing was 73 (IQR 68–79). Fifty (72%) women had a prior history of breast cancer and 27 (39%) had a history of ovarian cancer. Three of 19 (16%) women with no history of breast cancer elected to undergo a risk-reducing mastectomy (RRM) after their positive genetic test. Among 30 women with ovaries still in place, 14 (47%) underwent a risk-reducing salpingo-oophorectomy (RRSO); six were age 70 or older at the time of surgery. Four (6%) women in the cohort developed BRCA-related cancer after testing, one developed breast cancer and three developed pancreatic cancer. ConclusionsMost women with BRCA mutations surviving beyond age 75 received their genetic test result at an older age and had a history of BRCA-related cancer. Women continued surveillance and risk reducing surgeries at an older age. Pancreatic cancer was the most common new cancer diagnosed in older BRCA mutation carriers.