Background
Breast cancer is a leading cause of death worldwide, and despite consistent observation that cancer incidence increases with advancing age, there still remains a gap in the adequate characterization of this disease in elderly women.
Purpose
Characterization of the clinical, imaging and histological features of breast cancer in women aged 80 years or older and comparison with features from a representative group of younger women.
Methods
Single-center retrospective analysis of clinical, imaging and histopathological findings of women aged 80 years or older submitted to magnetic resonance imaging and comparison with a representative population of women under 80.
Results
Older patients have more advanced disease at presentation, with a significant difference in the clinical stage distribution between the two groups (P-Value = 0.004). Younger patients have a higher prevalence of ductal carcinoma in situ (P-Value = 0.02), with more extensive DCIS disease (P-Value = 0.025). DCIS in patients of 80 years or older is more frequently associated with positive estrogen receptors (P-Value = 0.03). Moderate agreement was found in the concordance between the clinical stage according to breast MR imaging and the pathological stage in patients of 80 years or over (Kappa = 0.50) and in younger aged patients’ group (Kappa = 0.55).
Conclusion
Breast cancer in elderly women presents different characteristics from those in younger aged patients.
Keywords: Breast neoplasms; Carcinoma intraductal noninfiltrating; Carcinoma ductal; Magnetic resonance imaging
