title: Long-term (37 years) clinical outcome of older women with early operable primary breast cancer managed in a dedicated clinic.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  A dedicated clinic for older women with early primary breast cancer, established in 1973, has recently evolved into a combined surgical/oncology facility. This study aimed to compare the clinical outcome across these periods.
  
  
  METHODS
  From 1973 to 2010, 1758 women were managed. Analysis was carried out based on retrospective review and continued update of patient records.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In the recent decade, 56.3% had surgery, followed by primary endocrine therapy (PET; 41.1%) and primary radiotherapy (1.5%). Before 1999, 42.8%, 55.6% and 1% of patients had surgery, PET and primary radiotherapy, respectively. The use of adjuvant endocrine therapy and radiotherapy has increased from 33.6% to 54.9% and 5.8% to 34.6%, respectively. A significant improvement was seen in the annual rates of local (2.2% versus 0.5%, P < 0.001), regional (1.8% versus 0.4%, P < 0.001) and distant (2.9% versus 1.9%, P = 0.002) recurrences. Similarly, the 5-year breast cancer-specific and overall survival rates showed improvement [81% versus 91% (P < 0.001) and 56% versus 71% (P < 0.001), respectively].
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  In the recent decade, while surgery became the predominant treatment, a significant proportion of patients had non-operative therapies, selection of which was based on multidisciplinary assessment in the clinic. This management approach appears to produce excellent clinical outcome, which is significantly better than that in earlier period.
authors: Division of Breast Surgery, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, UK.
authors: B M
authors: BM
authors: Syed
authors: S J
authors: SJ
authors: Johnston
authors: D W M
authors: DW
authors: Wong
authors: A R
authors: AR
authors: Green
authors: L
authors: L
authors: Winterbottom
authors: H
authors: H
authors: Kennedy
authors: N
authors: N
authors: Simpson
authors: D A L
authors: DA
authors: Morgan
authors: I O
authors: IO
authors: Ellis
authors: K L
authors: KL
authors: Cheung
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D018931:Antineoplastic Agents, Hormonal / Q000627:therapeutic use; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology / Q000628:therapy*; D002173:Cancer Care Facilities; D003131:Combined Modality Therapy; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D053208:Kaplan-Meier Estimate; D008207:Lymphatic Metastasis; D008408:Mastectomy; D009364:Neoplasm Recurrence, Local
chemical_list: D018931:Antineoplastic Agents, Hormonal