Young age is associated with inferior outcomes in early-stage luminal B breast cancer patients who undergo mastectomy

Abstract

Aim: This retrospective study aimed to evaluate the effect of age on cancer relapse and survival in breast cancer patients undergoing different treatments. Methods: The propensity score method was used to correct for disparities between two groups; 2049 young patients were matched to 4053 older patients. Kaplan–Meier curves and Cox proportional hazards models were used to assess disease-free survival. Results: In the original cohort, young patients showed higher lymph node metastasis, hormone-receptor positivity and high Ki-67 levels. After propensity score matching, the disease-free survival of young patients with the luminal B-like subtype who received mastectomy with early stage disease exhibited inferior survival. Conclusion: Decisions about biology-driven systemic treatment strategies for young patients are worthy of discussion with a multidisciplinary tumor board.

Tweetable abstract

Young age was an independent prognostic factor associated with poor prognosis in T1–2N0 patients undergoing mastectomy. More comprehensive monitoring and a biology-driven adjuvant therapy system might improve clinical outcomes of young early luminal B-like breast cancer patients.

Keywords::

• luminal B-like breast cancer
• prognosis
• propensity score-matched
• survival
• young age

Supplementary data

To view the supplementary data that accompany this paper please visit the journal website at: www.futuremedicine.com/doi/suppl/10.2217/fon-2023-0083

Author contributions

Study design: J Hou, L Li, X Huang, J Xue, J Wu. Literature search: J Hou, J Wang. Data collection: J Hou, J Wang. Data analysis: J Hou, J Wang, X Huang, J Xue. Manuscript writing: J Hou, L Li, J Wang, J Wu. All authors reviewed the final manuscript and agreed to submit it.

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to formally acknowledge the contributions of the participants to this study.

Financial & competing interests disclosure

This study was supported in part by grants from the National Key R&D Program of China (2017YFC1311004) and the Shanghai Committee of Science and Technology, China (grant no. 21ZR1414300). The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed.

No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.

Ethical conduct of research

The authors state that they have obtained appropriate institutional review board approval or have followed the principles outlined in the Declaration of Helsinki for all human or animal experimental investigations. The informed consent was waived by the Ethics Committee of Shanghai Cancer Center of Fudan University due to the retrospective nature of the study.

Additional information

Funding

This study was supported in part by grants from the National Key R&D Program of China (2017YFC1311004) and the Shanghai Committee of Science and Technology, China (grant no. 21ZR1414300). The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed.