Could Patients Older than 75 Years Benefit from a Systematic Breast Cancer Screening Program?
To assess prognosis of women aged 75 and older according to breast cancer (BC) diagnosis circumstances.



A retrospective cohort study was conducted in the Amiens, France, regional oncologic referral center between 2005 and 2015. Two groups were formed depending on whether the patients followed clinical manifestations (CM) or a prescribed systematic mammography (SM).



Three hundred and ninenty-three patients were selected. CM and SM represented 72% and 14.5% of BC diagnosis circumstances, respectively. In the SM group statistically significant differences included: earlier stage cancer diagnosis (tumor stages 0 and 1 accounted for 6.3% and 61.4% of cases, respectively), less lymph node invasions (35.7% and 8.8%) and metastases (19.1% and 0%), more frequent possibility of conservative surgery (25.6% and 74.5%), improved global and disease-free survival rates (by 14.2 and 18.4 months).



Screening seems to improve prognosis of older BC patients; this constitutes a strong argument for reconsidering age limits of national BC screening programs.
Department of Gynecology, University Hospital of Amiens, Amiens, France.
Anna
A
Ilenko
Department of Gynecology, University Hospital of Amiens, Amiens, France.
Fabrice
F
Sergent
Department of Gynecology, University Hospital of Amiens, Amiens, France.
Antonin
A
Mercuzot
Department of Radiology, University Hospital of Amiens, Amiens, France.
Mickaël
M
Zitoun
Department of Medical Oncology, University Hospital of Amiens, Amiens, France.
Bruno
B
Chauffert
Department of Gynecology, University Hospital of Amiens, Amiens, France.
Arthur
A
Foulon
Department of Gynecology, University Hospital of Amiens, Amiens, France.
Jean
J
Gondry
Department of Gynecology, University Hospital of Amiens, Amiens, France chevreau.julien@chu-amiens.fr.
Julien
J
Chevreau
D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery*; D018572:Disease-Free Survival; D055088:Early Detection of Cancer; D005260:Female; D005602:France; D006801:Humans; D053208:Kaplan-Meier Estimate; D008327:Mammography / Q000379:methods / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D008403:Mass Screening / Q000379:methods / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D008408:Mastectomy / Q000379:methods / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D011379:Prognosis; D012189:Retrospective Studies
Breast cancer; older woman; screening extension; screening program