Abstract
The effect of age on the prognosis of breast cancer remains controversial. To investigate the role of age, we reviewed 316 patients with stage I or 1I breast cancer. There were 14 patients below 34, 146 between 35 and 49, 115 between 50 and 65, and 41 over 66 years of age. No correlations were observed between age and clinicopathological variables. Breast cancer patients aged 34 or less had a significantly worse survival compared to those in the older age groups. Multivariate analysis also showed younger age to be a significant factor, followed by lymph node status. Therefore, younger age at onset is considered to be an independent prognostic factor.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Adami HO, Malker B, Holmberg L, Personn I, Stone B (1986) The relation between survival and age at diagnosis in breast cancer. N Engl J Med 315:559–563
Host H, Lund E (1986) Age as a prognostic factor in breast cancer. Cancer 57:2217–2221
Japanese Breast Cancer Society (1989) The general rules for clinical and pathological recording of breast cancer. Jpn J Surg 19:612–632
Cox DR (1972) Regression models and life tables. J Roy Statist Soc [Series B] 34:187–220
Fisher B, Slack N, Katrych D, Wolmark N (1985) Ten-year followup of patients with carcinoma of the breast in a cooperative clinical trial evaluating surgical adjuvant chemotherapy. Surg Gynecol Obstet 140:528–534
Fisher ER, Gregorio RM, Fisher B, Redmond C, Vellios F, Sommers SC (1985) The pathology of invasive breast cancer: A syllabus derived from findings of the National Surgical Adjuvant Breast Project (protocol no. 4). Cancer 36:1–85
Gentili C, Sanfilippo O, Silverstrini R (1981) Cell proliferation and its relationship to clinical features and relapse in breast cancer. Cancer 48:974–979
Nixon AJ, Neuberg D, Hayes DF, Gelman R, Connolly JL, Schnitt S, Abner A, Recht A, Vicini F, Harris JR (1994) Relationship of patient age to pathologic features of the tumor and prognosis for patients with stage I or II breast cancer. J Clin Oncol 12:888–894
Levi F, Randimbison L, Vecchia CL (1992) Breast cancer survival in relation to sex and age. Oncology 49:413–417
Nemoto T, Vana J, Bedwani RN, Baker HW, MacGregor F, Murphy GP (1980) Management and survival of female breast cancer: results of a national survey by the American College of Surgeons. Cancer 45:2917–2923
Lee CG, McCormick B, Mazumdar M, Vetto J, Borgen PI (1992) Infiltrating breast carcinoma in patients age 30 years and younger: long-term outcome for life, relapse, and second primary tumors. Int J Radiol Oncol Biol Phys 23:969–975
Sutherland CM, Mather FJ (1988) Charity Hospital experience with long-term survival and prognostic features in patients with breast cancer with localized or regional disease. Ann Surg 207:569–580
Ribeiro GG, Swindell R (1981) The prognosis of breast carcinoma in women aged less than 40 years. Clin Radiol 32:231–236
Noyes RD, Spanos WJ, Montague ED (1982) Breast cancer in women aged 30 and under. Cancer 40:1302–1307
Albain KS, Green S, LeBlanc M, Rivkin S, O'Sullivan J, Osborne CK (1992) Proportional hazards and recursive partitioning and amalgamation analyses of the Southwest Oncology Group nodepositive adjuvant CMFVP breast cancer data base: a pilot study. Breast Cancer Res Treat 22:273–284
Wallgren A, Silvuersward C, Hultbour A (1977) Carcinoma of the breast in women 30 years of age. Cancer 40:916–923
Birks DM, Crawfork GM, Ellison LG, Johnstone FRC (1973) Carcinoma of the breast in women 30 years of age or less. Surg Gynecol Obstet 137:21–25
Rosen PP, Lesser ML, Kinne DW, Beattie EJ (1984) Breast carcinoma in women 35 years of age or younger. Ann Surg 199:133–142
Backhouse CM, Lloyd-Davies ERV, Shousha S, Burn JI (1987) Carcinoma of the breast in women aged 35 or less. Br J Surg 74:591–593
Fowble BL, Schultz DJ, Overmoyer B, Solin LJ, Fox K, Jardines L, Orel S, Glick JH (1994) The influence of young age on outcome in early stage breast cancer. Int J Radiat Oncol Biol Phys 30:23–33
de la Rochefordière A, Asselain B, Campana F, Scholl SM, Fenton J, Vilcoq JR, Durand JC, Pouillart P, Magdelenat M, Fourquet A (1993) Age as a prognostic factor in premenopausal breast carcinoma. Lancet 341:1039–1043
Bonnier P, Romain S, Charpin C, Lejeune C, Tubiana N, Martin P-M, Piana L (1995) Age as a prognostic factor in breast cancer: Relationship to pathologic and biologic features. Int J Cancer 62:138–144
Solin LJ, Fowble BL, Schultz DJ, Goodman RL (1989) Age as a prognostic factor for patients treated with definitive irradiation for early stage breast cancer. Int J Radiat Oncol Biol Phys 16:373–381
Rosen PP, Lesser ML, Kinne DW (1985) Breast carcinoma at the extremes of age: A comparison of patients younger than 35 and older than 75 years. J Surg Oncol 28:90–96
Dixon RB, Lippman ME (1992) Molecular determinants of growth, angiogenesis and metastases in breast cancer. Semin Oncol 19:286–298
Albain KS, Allred DC, Clark GM (1994) Breast cancer outcome and predictors of outcome: Are there age differentials? J Natl Cancer Inst (Monog) 16:35–42
Claus EB, Risch N, Thompson D (1991) Genetic analysis of breast cancer in the cancer and steroid hormone study. Am J Hum Genet 48:232–242
Sigurdsson H, Baldetorpe B, Borg A, Dalberg M, Ferno M, Killander D, Olsson H (1990) Indicators of prognosis in nodenegative breast cancer. N Engl J Med 322:1045–1053
The Ludwig Breast Cancer Study Group (1989) Prolonged disease-free survival after one course of perioperative adjuvant chemotherapy for node-negative breast cancer. N Engl J Med 320:491–496
Chevallier B, Mosseri V, Dauce JP, Bastit P, Julien JP, Asselain B (1990) A prognostic score in histological node negative breast cancer. Br J Cancer 61:436–440
Crowe JP Jr, Gordon NH, Shenk RR, Zollinger RM Jr, Brumberg DJ, Shuck JM (1994) Age does not predict breast cancer outcome. Arch Surg 129:483–488
Cascinelli N, Greco M, Bufalino R, Clemento C, Galluzzo D, Donne VD, Lellis RD, Sacchini V, Veronesi V (1987) Prognosis of breast cancer with axillary node metastases after surgical treatment only. Eur J Cancer Clin Oncol 23:795–799
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Tsuchiya, A., Abe, R., Kanno, M. et al. Role of age as a prognostic factor in breast cancer. Surg Today 27, 213–216 (1997). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00941647
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00941647