Table 2. Sociodemographic and clinical variables by menopausal status and standard treatment protocol for systemic therapy (A–E)a.
|
Premenopausal survivors (N=751) |
Postmenopausal survivors (N=1138) |
|||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Protocol | A (−CT/−ET) | D (CT) | B (CT+ET) | P-valueb | A (−CT/−ET) | E (CT) | C (ET) | P-valueb |
| N (%) | 139 (18.5) | 104 (13.9) | 508 (67.6) | 247 (21.7) | 165 (14.5) | 726 (63.8) | ||
|
Sociodemographics, mean (s.d.) | ||||||||
| Age (years) | 56.4 (4.1) | 54.6 (5.3) | 55.1 (4.8) | 0.005 | 68.9 (5.0) | 68.2 (4.6) | 68.7 (5.0) | 0.39 |
| Time since surgery (years) | 8.3 (0.68) | 8.5 (0.69) | 8.5 (0.68) | 0.015 | 8.4 (0.70) | 8.5 (0.64) | 8.4 (0.67) | 0.64 |
| Income (in 10 000 US$)c | 5.2 (3.1) | 4.6 (1.7) | 4.7 (2.0) | 0.08 | 3.7 (2.0) | 3.7 (2.1) | 3.6 (2.0) | 0.62 |
| Mean household wealth (in 10 000 US$)c | 7.2 (15.7) | 3.2 (10.5) | 4.6 (9.5) | 0.011 | 8.9 (12.8) | 8.0 (12.5) | 9.9 (19.6) | 0.42 |
| Ethnicity, N (%) | 0.33 | 0.18 | ||||||
| Native | 133 (95.7) | 102 (98.1) | 490 (96.5) | 245 (99.2) | 161 (97.6) | 705 (97.1) | ||
| Immigrant or descendant | 6 (4.3) | 1 (1.0) | 17 (3.3) | 2 (0.8) | 4 (2.4) | 21 (2.9) | ||
| Education, N (%) | 0.34 | 0.88 | ||||||
| Graduate degree (⩾18 years) | 12 (8.6) | 11 (10.6) | 31 (6.1) | 7 (2.8) | 7 (4.2) | 24 (3.3) | ||
| <Graduate degree (14–17 years) | 37 (26.6) | 34 (32.7) | 168 (33.1) | 51 (20.6) | 31 (18.8) | 148 (20.4) | ||
| Upper secondary (11–13 years) | 66 (47.5) | 35 (33.7) | 201 (39.6) | 95 (38.5) | 72 (43.6) | 297 (40.9) | ||
| Secondary (8–10 years) | 18 (12.9) | 19 (18.3) | 88 (17.3) | 34 (13.8) | 16 (9.7) | 76 (10.5) | ||
| Lower secondary (7 years) | 5 (3.6) | 4 (3.8) | 15 (3.0) | 58 (23.5) | 37 (22.4) | 173 (23.8) | ||
| Occupational status, N (%) | 0.63 | 0.45 | ||||||
| Employee–medium/upper level | 61 (43.9) | 44 (42.3) | 215 (42.3) | 56 (22.7) | 36 (21.8) | 147 (20.2) | ||
| Employee–basic level | 73 (52.5) | 52 (50.0) | 248 (48.8) | 72 (29.1) | 67(40.6) | 263 (36.2) | ||
| Unemployed, recipient of benefits, etc. | 4 (2.9) | 4 (3.8) | 28 (5.5) | 70 (28.3) | 36 (21.8) | 192 (26.4) | ||
| Old age pension | — | — | — | 20 (8.1) | 9 (5.5) | 51 (7.0) | ||
| Early retirement pension | 1 (0.7) | 3 (2.9) | 15 (3.0) | 29 (11.7) | 17 (10.3) | 73 (10.1) | ||
| Marital status, N (%) | 0.23 | 0.92 | ||||||
| Married/cohabiting | 108 (77.7) | 89 (85.6) | 398 (78.3) | 191 (77.3) | 129 (78.2) | 557 (76.7) | ||
| Divorced/not cohabiting | 31 (22.3) | 15 (14.4) | 110 (21.7) | 56 (22.7) | 36 (21.8) | 169 (23.3) | ||
| Children, N (%) | 0.12 | 0.11 | ||||||
| No | 21 (15.1) | 7 (6.7) | 67 (13.2) | 31 (12.6) | 11 (6.7) | 65 (9.0) | ||
| Yes | 118 (84.9) | 97 (93.3) | 441 (86.8) | 216 (87.4) | 154 (93.3) | 661 (91.0) | ||
|
Clinical variables | ||||||||
| Radiotherapy, N (%) | 0.002 | <0.001 | ||||||
| No | 42 (30.2) | 22 (21.2) | 86 (16.9) | 79 (32.0) | 45 (27.3) | 115 (15.8) | ||
| Yes | 97 (69.8) | 82 (78.8) | 422 (83.1) | 168 (68.0) | 120 (72.7) | 611 (84.2) | ||
| Receptor status, N (%) | <0.001 | <0.001 | ||||||
| Estrogen positive | 137 (98.6) | — | 505 (99.4) | 242 (98.0) | — | 724 (99.7) | ||
| Estrogen negative | 2 (1.4) | 104 (100) | — | 5 (2.0) | 165 (100) | — | ||
| Axillary status, N (%) | <0.001 | <0.001 | ||||||
| No lymph node involvement | 139 (100) | 53 (51.0) | 196 (38.6) | 247 (100) | 99 (60.0) | 267 (36.8) | ||
| Lymph node involvement | — | 51 (49.0) | 312 (61.4) | — | 66 (40.0) | 459 (63.2) | ||
| Tumour grade, N (%) | <0.001 | <0.001 | ||||||
| Grade 1 | 87 (62.6) | 1 (1.0) | 109 (21.5) | 159 (64.4) | 6 (3.6) | 160 (22.0) | ||
| Grade 2 | — | 18 (17.3) | 241 (47.4) | — | 53 (32.1) | 376 (51.8) | ||
| Grade 3 | — | 71 (68.3) | 77 (15.2) | — | 76 (46.1) | 81 (11.2) | ||
| Non-ductal tumour | 49 (35.3) | 12 (11.5) | 76 (15.0) | 82 (33.2) | 29 (17.6) | 109 (15.0) | ||
| Missing | 3 (2.2) | 2 (1.9) | 5 (1.0) | 6 (2.4) | 1 (0.6) | — | ||
| Surgery type, N (%) | <0.001 | <0.001 | ||||||
| Mastectomy | 42 (30.2) | 51 (49.0) | 282 (55.5) | 84 (34.0) | 91 (55.2) | 398 (54.8) | ||
| Lumpectomy | 97 (69.8) | 53 (51.0) | 226 (44.5) | 163 (66.0) | 74 (44.8) | 328 (45.2) | ||
| Charlson comorbidity index, N (%) | 0.83 | 0.29 | ||||||
| No comorbidity | 131 (94.2) | 99 (95.2) | 473 (93.1) | 220 (89.1) | 153 (92.7) | 641 (88.3) | ||
| Comorbidity (CCI score ⩾1) | 8 (5.8) | 5(4.8) | 32 (6.3) | 26 (10.5) | 12 (7.3) | 83 (11.4) | ||
|
Psychiatric history, N (%) | ||||||||
| No psychiatric history | 129 (92.8) | 101 (97.1) | 477 (93.9) | 0.34 | 228 (92.3) | 157 (95.2) | 683 (94.1) | 0.46 |
| Psychiatric history | 10 (7.2) | 3 (2.9) | 31 (6.1) | 19 (7.7) | 8 (4.8) | 43 (5.9) | ||
Abbrevaitions: ANOVA=analysis of variance; CCI=Charlson comorbidity index; CEF=cyclophosphamide, epirubicin, and fluorouracil; CMF=cyclophosphamide, methotrexate, and fluorouracil; CT=chemotherapy; ET=endocrine treatment; NAT=no adjuvant treatment.
a
Danish Breast Cancer Cooperative Group (DBCG) standardized protocols: A=NAT; B (CT+ET)=seven cycles of CEF+tamoxifen; C (ET)=tamoxifen+exemestane; D (CT)=seven cycles of CEF; E (CT)=CMF. Missing observations ⩽1% not shown.
b
Groups were compared with univariate ANOVA for continuous variables and chi-square tests for categorical variables; all tests were two-sided.
c
The amounts were converted from Danish Kroner to US$ based on the exchange rate per 31 December 2003. A full description has been published elsewhere (Christensen et al, 2009).