Abstract P4-11-04: Palliative care and older women with advanced breast cancer in Mexico
Authors: Cabrera-Galeana P , Sánchez N , Verastegui E , Rodriguez C , Bargallo E , Monreal E , Allende S 
Published: May 2019

Background: Mexico is an upper-middle income country, as other developing regions, there is an accelerated aging of the population that will double the absolute number of new breast cancer (BC) cases by 2035. Unfortunately, the incidence of stage III and IV in women older than 65 years old represented 45% of new cases (higher than high-income regions); also, 21% had diabetes, 41.1% hypertension and 71% overweight/obese. These factors make our older adults patients with BC a high-risk population of recurrence and dead from disease.

Objective: Describe the characteristics of older women with BC that received palliative care in a multidisciplinary setting.

Patients and Methods:A cross-sectional, retrospective, descriptive of 178 patients with advanced breast cancer, older than 65 years from our data based, that were referred to palliative service during 2010-2016 at National Cancer Institute, Mexico. Statistical analysis was done with STATA V12.0. We described clinical, pathological and sociodemographic characteristics of this older women with advanced BC and analyzed the risk factors that influence dead. Approval from IRB was obtained.

Results:The median age was 75 years old (range 69-82), 71(41%) was widows, 51(29%) had none education, 93(52%) had elementary school. Highlights that 93 (52%) of the patients evaluated had any income source. Diabetes was present in 43(24%), hypertension in 81 (46%) and cardiopathy in 17(10%) of cases. ECOG-2 were 58 (33%) patients, ECOG-3 was in 47 (26%)patients and ECOG-4 was reported in 19 (11%). None patient had geriatric assessment. Affected metastasis sites were bone 90 (51%), lung 66 (37%), central nervous system 31 (17%), liver 27 (15%). 69 (62%) patients had hormonal receptor positive, 17 (15%) triple negative, 12 (11%) HER2positive and 13(12%) of the cases were triple positive, 41 (74%) patients had Ki-67 higher than 50%. Polypharmacy was identified in 77 (43%) of the patients. The median survival after the admission in the palliative service was 2 months (IQR 0-10). After a logistic regression univariate Ki-67&gt;20% (OR 10.25), triple negative (OR 1.5), HER2 positive (OR 2.3), influence negative survival.

Conclusions: Management of BC in the elderly is complex. Our data show that we have highly vulnerable population. Additionally, we found an unfortunate late reference to palliative care services that limited the impact of the multidisciplinary approach. We need to identify the barriers that influence this delay. Health care provides have a challenge in early reference of older women with advanced breast cancer patients to the palliative care and need to think in integrate to the multidisciplinary team a geriatrician with oncology perspective.

Citation Format: Cabrera-Galeana P, Sánchez N, Verastegui E, Rodriguez C, Bargallo E, Monreal E, Allende S. Palliative care and older women with advanced breast cancer in Mexico [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 2018 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium; 2018 Dec 4-8; San Antonio, TX. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2019;79(4 Suppl):Abstract nr P4-11-04.