13 Comorbid Conditions Decrease Survival, Increase Mortality in Elderly Breast Cancer Patients
For breast cancer patients aged 66 years and older, nurses should consider comorbidities when discussing prognosis, according to an analysis of Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results–Medicare data.
In a US population of 64,034 patients diagnosed with breast cancer at a median age of 75 years, Patnaik and colleagues identified 13 comorbid conditions associated with decreased overall survival and increased all-cause mortality (Table). Among the study population, 58% had none of the selected comorbidities, 28.0% had 1 comorbidity, 8.8% had 2 comorbidities, and 4.9% had ≥3 of the conditions.
Kaplan-Meier survival curves showed that comorbidities are associated with survival, meaning that for a patient with comorbid conditions diagnosed at an early stage, that patient had similar or worse survival than a patient with no comorbid conditions diagnosed at a later stage.
The investigators concluded that their findings suggest that “careful attention to the effective management of comorbid conditions, as well as to the management of a patient’s cancer, may result in longer overall survival for older breast cancer patients.”
BEFORE YOU POST A COMMENT, please note that this is a site for oncology medical professionals. We encourage you to comment on articles posted on our site, but know that we do not edit or alter comments, and that our site is not gated. However, we do remove comments that contain profanity, personal attacks, advertisements for products, or other inappropriate material; we also remove comments that do not promote useful professional dialogue among members of our primary audience. Patients and members of the general public should note that neither the editors nor the authors of articles respond to questions about health matters; if you have such questions, you are advised to consult your health-care provider.