Related Experiment Video
Updated: Aug 6, 2026
A Portal Vein Injection Model to Study Liver Metastasis of Breast Cancer
Published on: December 26, 2016
Determinants of early distant metastatic disease in elderly patients with breast cancer
Anees B Chagpar1, Kelly M McMasters, Robert C Martin
1Division of Surgical Oncology, Department of Surgery, University of Louisville, 315 E. Broadway, Suite 312, Louisville, KY 40202, USA. anees.chagpar@nortonhealthcare.org
Background:
The purpose of this analysis was to determine predictors of early distant metastasis in elderly breast cancer patients receiving hormonal therapy.
Methods:
We analyzed data from 938 patients in the North American Fareston Tamoxifen Adjuvant Trial>or=65 years old to determine predictors of early metastatic disease.
Results:
The median patient age was 73 (range 65 to 100). With a median follow-up of 34 months, 17 patients (1.8%) developed distant metastases. The median time to distant metastasis was 21 months. On univariate analysis, significant predictors of distant metastatic disease were as follows: progesterone receptor status (P=.032), lymphovascular invasion (P=.020), tumor grade (P=.007), tumor size (P<.01), and number of metastatic nodes (P<.01). On multivariate analysis, only the number of positive nodes (P=.029) remained significant. Patients with >or=4 positive nodes were more likely to develop early metastases than those with 0 to 3 positive nodes (odds ration 20.304; 95% confidence interval 2.777-148.456, P=.003).
Conclusions:
Lymph node status in the elderly breast cancer patient treated with hormonal therapy alone is a strong predictor of early distant recurrence.
