The impact of age group in breast cancer survival outcome according to neoadjuvant treatment response: A matched case–control study

Abstract

This study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of neoadjuvant chemotherapy in patients with breast cancer in different age groups and evaluate the impact of age group on survival outcome according to different treatment responses. Data were retrospectively collected from the cancer registry database of Kaohsiung Medical University Hospital in Taiwan under an approved protocol. Overall, 96 elder patients (aged >50 years) and 96 younger controls (aged ≤50 years) who received neoadjuvant chemotherapy and breast surgical treatment were examined after 1:1 matching. Logistic regression analysis was used to investigate the effectiveness of treatment response in patients of different age groups. Additionally, the Kaplan–Meier estimator and log‐rank test were performed to evaluate the effect of age group and treatment response on disease‐free and overall survival (OS). Although no direct significant association was found between age group and treatment response, several significant results were found in treatment response stratification analysis. Among 16 pathological complete response (pCR) patients, elder patients showed significantly greater 5‐year disease‐free survival (DFS) than younger patients (DFS rate, 85.7% vs. 0%, p = 0.041). However, in 176 non‐pCR patients, elder patients showed poor DFS compared to younger patients (DFS rate, 16.6% vs. 32.3%; log‐rank test, p = 0.031). With limited sample size and study design, our study results demonstrate that patients aged >50 years who achieved pCR after neoadjuvant chemotherapy could obtain better survival outcome than younger patients. However, the younger patients showed no survival benefits regardless of pCR status.

Tumour necrosis factor-alpha levels as predictor factor on clinical response of anthracycline-based neoadjuvant chemotherapy in locally advance breast cancer patients: experimental research

“…Age is a significant risk factor in the incidence of breast cancer. However, age does not significantly affect the clinical response of neoadjuvant chemotherapy in breast cancer 14 . Previous studies stated that breast cancer patients with luminal subtype had a higher percentage of complete response and partial response than Her2 and TNBC subtypes (Luminal B complete response 45.5%, partial response 31.6%; Luminal A complete response 21.2%, partial response 68.4%) 15 .…”

Predictors of Complete Pathological Response with Chemoimmunotherapy in Triple-Negative Breast Cancer: A Meta-Analysis

“…A study by Li et al demonstrated no significant association between age group and neoadjuvant chemotherapy treatment response. However, they observed that patients aged >50 years who attained pCR after neoadjuvant chemotherapy experienced better survival compared to young patients [37]. A pooled analysis of eight neoadjuvant trials showed that women <40 years of age with breast cancer have a higher likelihood of attaining pCR, and this was more pronounced in HER2-negative breast cancer patients [38].…”