Key clinical point: Adjuvant radiotherapy (RT) following breast-conserving surgery (BCS) improved survival outcomes in women age ≥ 70 years with T1-2N0 estrogen receptor-negative (ER−) breast cancer (BC); however, patients age ≥ 80 years or those with T1mic+T1a, T1b tumors did not benefit from it.
Major finding: Overall survival (hazard ratio [HR] 0.62; P < .001) and BC-specific survival (HR 0.71; P = .002) improved significantly in patients who received vs did not receive adjuvant RT. Patients age ≥ 80 years ( P = .056) or with clinical stage T1mic+T1a ( P = .543) or T1b ( P = .329) tumors did not show improvement in OS after receiving RT.
Study details: This study included 4201 women with T1-2N0 ER− BC (from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results [SEER] study) who were age ≥ 70 years and underwent BCS, of which 2811 women received adjuvant RT.
Disclosures: This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China and other sources. The authors declared no conflicts of interest.
Source: Chen C et al. The effect of adjuvant radiotherapy after breast-conserving surgery in elderly women with T1-2N0 estrogen receptor-negative breast cancer. PLoS One. 2023;18(8):e0288078 (Aug 3). doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0288078