Table 1.
Characteristics of Older Breast Cancer Survivors Prior to Systemic Therapy, and Older Non-cancer Controls, at Study Enrollment (Baseline)
| All (n=729) | Survivors (n=400) | Controls (n=329) | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
| ||||
| Mean (SD) or % (n) | p value a | |||
|
| ||||
| Sociodemographic | ||||
|
| ||||
| Age, years | 0.539 | |||
| Mean (SD) | 67.7 (5.7) | 67.8 (5.3) | 67.6 (6.2) | |
| [Range], [Median] | [60-90], [67] | [60-85], [67] | [60- 90], [66] | |
|
| ||||
| Racial/ethnic group | 0.764 | |||
| Non-White (Black, Hispanic, Asian, other) | 16.9% (123) | 17.3% (69) | 16.4% (54) | |
| White, non-Hispanic | 83.1% (606) | 82.8% (331) | 83.6% (275) | |
|
| ||||
| Education, years | 15.5 (2.2) | 15.5 (2.1) | 15.6 (2.2) | 0.317 |
|
| ||||
| Cognitive reserve, WRAT4 reading score | 110.8 (15.7) | 109.8 (14.8) | 111.9 (16.7) | 0.072 |
|
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| Clinical | ||||
|
| ||||
| Number of comorbidities | 2.7 (2.0) | 3.0 (2.0) | 2.5 (2.0) | 0.001 |
|
| ||||
| High comorbidity, >2 | 49.1% (345) | 56.2% (214) | 40.7% (131) | <0.001 |
|
| ||||
| Diabetes | 10.0% (70) | 12.4% (47) | 7.1% (23) | 0.021 |
|
| ||||
| Cardiovascular disease (with hypertension) | 50.4% (354) | 55.4% (211) | 44.5% (143) | 0.004 |
|
| ||||
| Obesity, BMI ≥30 kg/m2 | 33.6% (243) | 39.3% (157) | 26.5% (86) | <0.001 |
|
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| Psychosocial | ||||
|
| ||||
| Depressive symptoms, CES-D score b | 5.7 (6.7) | 6.7 (7.2) | 4.5 (5.8) | <0.001 |
|
| ||||
| Anxiety, STAI State score c | 27.9 (6.9) | 28.8 (7.6) | 26.9 (5.9) | <0.001 |
|
| ||||
| Cognition | ||||
|
| ||||
| FACT-PCI score d | 61.1 (10.2) | 60.7 (10.8) | 61.5 (9.5) | 0.289 |
|
| ||||
| Attention, Processing speed, Executive function (APE) z-score e | −0.01 (0.62) | −0.07 (0.61) | 0.06 (0.62) | 0.007 |
|
| ||||
| Learning and Memory (LM) z-score e | 0.03 (0.77) | 0.00 (0.77) | 0.06 (0.78) | 0.357 |
|
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| Breast cancer characteristics in Survivors | ||||
|
| ||||
| AJCC v.6 Tumor Stage | ||||
|
| ||||
| 0 | - | 17.4% (68) | - | |
|
| ||||
| I | - | 60.9% (238) | - | |
|
| ||||
| II | - | 18.2% (71) | - | |
|
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| III | - | 3.6% (14) | - | |
|
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| Tumor markers | ||||
|
| ||||
| ER positive | - | 18.2% (71) | - | |
|
| ||||
| HER2 positive | - | 3.6% (14) | - | |
|
| ||||
| Surgery | ||||
| Breast conservation alone | - | 52.4% (208) | - | |
| Breast conservation with radiotherapy | - | 19.1% (76) | - | |
| Mastectomy | - | 28.5% (113) | - | |
|
| ||||
| Time between surgery and baseline pre-systemic therapy assessment, days f | ||||
| Mean (SD) | - | 49.5 (SD 29.8), | ||
| [Range], [Median] | - | [4-169], [42] | ||
|
| ||||
| Systemic Therapy g | - | |||
|
| ||||
| Chemotherapy (+/− hormonal therapy) | - | 25.8% (92) | - | |
|
| ||||
| Hormonal therapy, no chemotherapy | - | 74.2% (264) | - | |
p values from t-tests, ANOVA or chi-square tests comparing survivors vs. controls
Based on CES-D continuous scores (range 0-60); scores of 16+ are considered clinical depression. Mean score differences are statistically, but not clinically meaningfully different.
Based on STAI State continuous scores (range 20-80); scores of 54+ are considered clinical anxiety in older adults. Mean score differences are statistically, but not clinically meaningfully different.
FACT-PCI scores for 18 items (range 0-72); higher scores indicate better self-reported cognition.
Z-scores for neurocognitive test performance are age and education standardized to the overall TLC control sample mean at baseline. Scores range from −1 to +1, where zero indicates having the same score as the control group average, and scores from >0 to 1 are better than the average, and scores from <0 to −1 are worse than the average.
N=375; survivors who had neoadjuvant therapy (n=23), did not receive surgery (n=1) and failed to return for surgery for ~9 months (n=1) were not included in calculation of time from surgery to baseline immune marker sample.
89.2% of hormonal therapy was with aromatase inhibitors