Only one in four women diagnosed with breast cancer in the 1940s was alive 10 years later, compared with three of four women diagnosed in recent years, based on data gathered over a 6-decade period at a single institution.
Overall, the 10-year survival rate for all types of breast cancer improved significantly over 60 years, from 25% between 1944 and 1954, to 77% between 1995 and 2004. This improvement is because of earlier disease detection and a multimodal approach to managing and treating patients with different stages of breast cancer, Dr. Aman Buzdar, the study’s lead author, reported Sept. 29.
The goal of the study was to quantify the steady improvements in breast cancer survival rates over the past 6 decades in patients seen at the MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. Dr. Buzdar said he believes that the survival rates seen at MD Anderson are generalizable to survival rates at smaller regional hospitals and community cancer centers, given the rapid adoption of the multimodal treatment model and new therapies.
“If patients are appropriately managed, they have a much better chance of surviving breast cancer today than they would have had 30 or 20 or even 10 years ago, because the therapies are constantly evolving and improving,” Dr. Buzdar, professor of medicine and breast medical oncology at the center, said in a written statement. Therefore, if the approaches used at MD Anderson are applied in the community, similar outcomes can be achieved, he said during a press briefing sponsored by the American Society of Clinical Oncology.
Dr. Buzdar and his colleagues reviewed the center’s detailed database on breast cancer patients dating back to the 1940s. The database included approximately 57,000 breast cancer patients seen between 1944 and 2004. The review included 12,809 patients who had their diagnoses established and treatments initiated at MD Anderson.
Ten-year survival rates improved significantly from the 1944-1954 period to the 1995-2004 period: For local breast cancer, the rates rose from 55% to 86% and for regional breast cancer they increased from 16% to 76%. The survival rate for metastatic disease improved from 3% to 22%.
Disclosures: Dr. Buzdar said he had no financial conflicts to disclose.