Special Issues in Older Women with Breast Cancer

Development and validation of competitive risk model for older women with metaplastic breast cancer

BACKGROUND

Metaplastic breast cancer (MpBC) is a rare histological subtype of breast cancer. This study aims to establish a competitive risk model for older women with MpBC to predict patients' survival accurately.

METHODS

Data on patients diagnosed with MpBC from 2010 to 2019 are from the Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) program in the United States. All patients were randomly assigned to the training set and validation set. The proportional sub-distribution risk model was used in the training set to analyze the risk factors affecting patient death. Based on the risk factors for cancer-specific mortality (CSM) in patients, we constructed a competitive risk model to predict patients' 1-, 3-, and 5-year cancer-specific survival. Then we used the concordance index (C-index), the calibration curve and the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) to validate the discrimination and accuracy of the model.

RESULTS

One thousand, four hundred twelve older women with MpBC were included in this study. Age, T stage, N stage, M stage, tumor size, surgery and radiotherapy were risk factors for CSM. We established a competitive risk model to predict 1-, 3-, and 5-year cancer-specific survival in older women with MpBC. The C-index of the model was 0.792 in the training set and 0.744 in the validation set. The calibration curves in the training and validation sets showed that the model's predicted values were almost consistent with the actual observed values. The AUC results show that the prediction model has good accuracy.

CONCLUSION

We developed a competitive risk model based on these risk factors to predict cancer-specific survival in older women with MpBC. The validation results of the model show that it is a very effective and reliable prediction tool. This predictive tool allows doctors and patients to make individualized clinical decisions.

Older women's experience with breast cancer treatment: A systematic review of qualitative literature

Background

The experience of older women during breast cancer treatment is insufficiently described by quantitative studies. This study aimed to systematically review qualitative data describing factors that influence older women’s (≥65 years old) experience with breast cancer treatment.

Methods

A systematic review was performed in accordance with Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-analysis Protocols (PRISMA) principles. MEDLINE, CINAHL, PsycINFO, and EMBASE were searched (inception – 2020). Quality assessment of essential item reporting was performed using the Standards for Reporting Qualitative Research (SRQR) criteria. Common ideas were coded, thematically organized, and synthesized within a theoretical framework.

Results

Of 7,773 studies identified, twelve were included. The median SRQR score was 13.4 (range 11.3–15.9) (maximum score: 21). Data synthesis revealed that older women experienced breast cancer as a journey with challenges during each phase. During diagnosis, they delayed seeking medical help despite symptoms. Age and experience gave them perspective on the impact of their diagnosis. During decision-making, preconceptions and personal values determined choices. In the treatment phase, women experienced medical and social barriers to care. During the post-treatment phase, many experienced treatment adverse effects, but could move on or compartmentalize as coping mechanisms.

Conclusion

Older women with breast cancer have unique challenges specific to each phase of their treatment journey. Older women may benefit from proactive treatment discussions with health care providers to address their specific needs, individualize care, and assist with cancer care navigation.

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Older women have challenges specific to each phase of their treatment journey.

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Older women experience barriers to care and depended on their social network.

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Older women could conceptually move on or compartmentalize as coping mechanisms.

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Physicians should be aware of the unique features of each treatment phase.

Breast cancer survivorship: state of the science

PURPOSE

Only recently has breast cancer survivorship earned formal recognition as a research discipline. Complicating survivorship research is the frequent overlap between aging and treatment sequelae. The ACS/ASCO 2016 Breast Cancer Survivorship Care Guideline (Guideline) reflects comprehensive literature review through April 2015, while the jointly sponsored, inaugural Cancer Survivorship Symposium in 2016 (Symposium) reflects ongoing research activity in the area. Together, these platforms provide an opportunity to examine the use of randomized trials and controlled studies in survivorship care research.

METHODS

All 236 citations from the Guideline and all 250 abstracts from the Symposium were reviewed independently by two authors and assigned to prospectively determined categories.

RESULTS

Guideline citations were most frequently reviews (n = 88, 37.3%) and non-randomized, non-controlled studies (n = 51, 21.6%). Thirty-seven (15.7%) randomized trials were cited. Only 9% of Guideline recommendations were based on randomized clinical trial evidence, while 64% were based on evidence level "0" (expert opinion, clinical practice, etc.). Symposium abstracts consisted largely of non-randomized, non-controlled studies (n = 113, 45.2%), with ten completed randomized trials (4%). Few Guideline citations or Symposium abstracts incorporated matched, cancer-free controls.

CONCLUSIONS

Based on the literature underlying the ASCO Guideline as well as a survey of the Cancer Survivorship Symposium abstracts, a significant proportion of the survivorship literature at least through 2015 consisted of non-randomized, non-controlled studies. To optimally address survivorship issues, cancer therapy sequelae need to be distinguished from normal aging in studies incorporating cancer-free controls, and randomized clinical trials are needed to inform intervention strategies.

Efficacy and safety of palbociclib in combination with letrozole as first-line treatment of ER-positive, HER2-negative, advanced breast cancer: expanded analyses of subgroups from the randomized pivotal trial PALOMA-1/TRIO-18

Background

Palbociclib is an oral small-molecule inhibitor of cyclin-dependent kinases 4 and 6. In the randomized, open-label, phase II PALOMA-1/TRIO-18 trial, palbociclib in combination with letrozole improved progression-free survival (PFS) compared with letrozole alone as first-line treatment of estrogen receptor (ER)-positive, human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2)-negative, advanced breast cancer (20.2 months versus 10.2 months; hazard ratio (HR) = 0.488, 95 % confidence interval (CI) 0.319–0.748; one-sided p = 0.0004). Grade 3–4 neutropenia was the most common adverse event (AE) in the palbociclib + letrozole arm. We now present efficacy and safety analyses based on several specific patient and tumor characteristics, and present in detail the clinical patterns of neutropenia observed in the palbociclib + letrozole arm of the overall safety population.

Methods

Postmenopausal women (n = 165) with ER+, HER2-negative, advanced breast cancer who had not received any systemic treatment for their advanced disease were randomized 1:1 to receive either palbociclib in combination with letrozole or letrozole alone. Treatment continued until disease progression, unacceptable toxicity, consent withdrawal, or death. The primary endpoint was PFS. We now analyze the difference in PFS for the treatment populations by subgroups, including age, histological type, history of prior neoadjuvant/adjuvant systemic treatment, and sites of distant metastasis, using the Kaplan-Meier method. HR and 95 % CI are derived from a Cox proportional hazards regression model.

Results

A clinically meaningful improvement in median PFS and clinical benefit response (CBR) rate was seen with palbociclib + letrozole in every subgroup evaluated. Grade 3–4 neutropenia was the most common AE with palbociclib + letrozole in all subgroups. Analysis of the frequency of neutropenia by grade during the first six cycles of treatment showed that there was a downward trend in Grade 3–4 neutropenia over time. Among those who experienced Grade 3–4 neutropenia, 71.7 % had no overlapping infections of any grade and none had overlapping Grade 3–4 infections.

Conclusion

The magnitude of clinical benefit seen with the addition of palbociclib to letrozole in improving both median PFS and CBR rate is consistent in nearly all subgroups analyzed, and consistent with that seen in the overall study population. The safety profile of the combination treatment in all subgroups was also comparable to that in the overall safety population of the study.

Electronic supplementary material

The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s13058-016-0721-5) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.