The Impact of Frailty on Adjuvant Therapies Not Offered to or Declined by Breast Cancer Surgery Patients

The impact of frailty on adjuvant therapies not offered to or declined by elderly breast cancer surgery patients has been understudied.

This is a retrospective review of a prospectively managed single-center database including all breast cancer patients >65 years undergoing surgery in 2021. Frailty was determined using an electronic frailty index (eFI) derived from electronic health data. Patients were categorized as Fit (eFI ≤ .10), Pre-frail (.10 < eFI ≤.21), or Frail (eFI > .21). Chart review was performed to collect data on adjuvant therapies not offered or declined. Descriptive statistics and logistic regression were performed.

Of 133 patients, 16.5% were frail, 46.6% were pre-frail, and 36.8% were fit. Demographics were similar among groups except age and comorbidities. Of those with adjuvant therapy indicated (n = 123), 15.4% were not offered at least one indicated therapy. Of those offered therapy, some therapy was declined in 22.7%. Frail patients more often were not offered or declined some therapy (frail: 63.2%, pre-frail 36.2%, fit: 28.2%, P = .03). Frailty was associated with having some therapy not offered or declined on univariate modeling (OR 4.4 95% CI 1.4-13.5, P = .01) but not on multivariate. Being frail was associated with higher odds of readmission at 6 months on multivariate analysis (OR 9.5, 95% CI: 1.7-54.2. P = .01).

Over half of frail patients are not offered or decline some adjuvant therapy. The impact of this requires further study. Given their higher odds of readmission, frail patients require close postoperative monitoring to prevent the interruption of adjuvant therapies.