Key clinical point: Omission of surgical axillary staging (AS) worsened overall survival (OS) but not breast cancer-specific survival (BCSS) in older women with estrogen receptor-positive (ER+), human epidermal growth factor receptor 2-negative (HER2−) early-stage breast cancer (BC).
Major finding: Women who did not undergo AS had similar BCSS (adjusted hazard ratio [HR] 0.98; 95% CI 0.77-1.25) but poorer OS (adjusted HR 1.14; 95% CI 1.04-1.25) compared with those who underwent AS.
Study details: Findings are from a population-based cohort study including 17,370 women aged 65-95 years with ER+/HER2− early-stage BC who underwent surgery, of which 1771 patients did not undergo AS.
Disclosures: This study was supported by the Ontario Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Long-Term Care, Canada. The authors declared no conflict of interests.
Source: Castelo M et al. The association between surgical axillary staging, adjuvant treatment use and survival in older women with early stage breast cancer: A population-based study. Ann Surg Oncol. 2023 (Mar 14). Doi: 10.1245/s10434-023-13274-0