Usefulness of Local Therapy in Elderly Breast Cancer Patients with Distant Metastases

We investigated the usefulness of local therapy in elderly breast cancer patients with distant metastases. Sixty-four elderly breast cancer patients were encountered during 10 years. Fifty-one patients had complications. The proportion of endocrine receptor-positive tumors was 95.2%. Patients who had metastases at the first visit represented 22.6% of the study group. Advanced-stage cancers were recognized in elderly patients than other patients. The mean observation time for all the patients was 7.4 years. The mortality from cancer was 6.5%, and the mortality from other diseases was 58.1%. We divided the patients into 2 groups, the non-metastases group (group A, n=48), and the metastases group (group B, n=14). There were no significant differences between groups A and B in the rates of endocrine receptor-positive tumors, surgery rate, and survival rate. These results suggest that endocrine therapy without surgery should be considered in elderly breast cancer patients with endocrine receptor-positive tumors.