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. 2018 Nov 20;13(1):226.
doi: 10.1186/s13014-018-1177-9.

The effects of postoperative radiotherapy on survival outcomes in patients under 65 with estrogen receptor positive tubular breast carcinoma

Jian-Xian Chen  1 , Wen-Wen Zhang  2 , Yong Dong  3 , Jia-Yuan Sun  2 , Zhen-Yu He  4 , San-Gang Wu  5
Affiliations

The effects of postoperative radiotherapy on survival outcomes in patients under 65 with estrogen receptor positive tubular breast carcinoma

Jian-Xian Chen et al. Radiat Oncol. .

Abstract

Background: The value of postoperative radiotherapy in tubular breast carcinoma patients under 65 years is uncertain.

Methods: Data on patients with estrogen receptor positive T1N0M0 tubular breast carcinoma who were younger than 65 years and who received breast-conserving surgery between 2000 and 2013 were retrieved from the Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results database. Demographic, clinicopathologic features, and receipt of postoperative radiotherapy were analyzed to investigate effects on survival.

Results: Data from 2442 patients were analyzed, of whom 2020 (82.7%) received postoperative radiotherapy and 422 (17.3%) did not. The number of patients treated with or without postoperative radiotherapy showed no differences during the study period (p = 0.184). Radiotherapy was more likely to be administered in patients with well differentiated tumors. Multivariate Cox analysis showed that postoperative radiotherapy delivery was significantly correlated with better breast cancer-specific survival (BCSS) (hazard ratio [HR] 0.297, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.105-0.836, p = 0.022) and overall survival (OS) (HR 0.656, 95% CI 0.441-0.978, p = 0.038). Ten 10-year BCSS was 99.3% in patients who received postoperative radiotherapy and 98.1% in those who did not (p = 0.020), and 10-year OS was 93.4 and 91.0%, respectively (p = 0.029). Postoperative radiotherapy increased BCSS and OS in the subgroups of age < 50 years, non-Hispanic white, well differentiated tumors, and progesterone receptor positive tumors.

Conclusions: Postoperative radiotherapy after breast-conserving surgery improved survival outcomes in tubular breast carcinoma patients aged < 50 years. However, omitting postoperative radiotherapy may not decrease survival in patients aged ≥50 years.

Keywords: Adjuvant radiotherapy; Breast cancer; Breast-conserving surgery; Estrogen receptors; Tubular carcinoma.

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Conflict of interest statement

Ethics approval and consent to participate

This study was based on the publicly available SEER database and we have got the permission to access them on purpose of research only (Reference number: 11025-Nov2016). As the SEER database consists of de-identified information, the study was exempt from the approval process of Institutional Review Boards of the First Affiliated Hospital of Xiamen University.

Consent for publication

Not applicable.

Competing interests

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Publisher’s Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Breast cancer-specific survival and overall survival according to whether or not postoperative radiotherapy was received after breast conserving surgery
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Breast cancer-specific survival and overall survival in patients aged < 50 years according to whether or not postoperative radiotherapy was received after breast conserving surgery
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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