Interest of individual breast cancer screening by mammography in women aged over 75 years

Organized breast cancer screening in France is recommended for women up to 74 years of age, while the frequency and severity of this cancer increases after 75 years. The aim of this work is to assess the potential benefits of extending organized screening. Methodology: Retrospective study of a continuous monocentric series of women over 75 having undergone surgery for breast cancer. The following variables were studied: addressing after screening or not, age at diagnosis, UICC stage and therapeutic measures (surgery by lumpectomy or mastectomy, lymph node dissection, adjuvant treatment with chemotherapy, radiotherapy or hormone therapy). Results: 185 women aged 82.8 +/- 5.2 years (extreme ages 75 to 951 were included in the study. 136 (73.5%) breast cancers were discovered after palpation and 49 (26.5%) after screening mammography. The distribution by stage was: I - 38.8%, II- 39.5%, III - 15.1% and stage IV - 7%. 164 (87.7%), patients received surgical treatment: 115 lumpectomies (61.2%) and 49 mastectomies (26.5%). 51 (27.6%) patients underwent lymph node dissection. The distribution of adjuvant treatments was: chemotherapy 21.1%, radiotherapy 68.6%, or hormone therapy (79.5%), sometimes combined. Women not screened are older than women screened (84 +/- 5.3 versus 79.5 +/- 3.6 years; p < 0.0001). Cancers are diagnosed at a more advanced stage in non-screened patients compared to screened patients (p < 0.0001). While there is a higher proportion of stage I among screened patients (75.5%), stage II is the most frequent in women not screened (47%). Stage I and II are the majority in the latter (72%). In multivariate analysis with adjustment for age, screening made it possible to make a diagnosis at a less advanced stage (stage I-II vs II-IV OR = 5.593; 95% CI [1.575-19.866]; p = 0.0078) and to have conservative surgery more often (lumpectomy vs mastectomy: OR = 2.645; 95% CI [1.079-6.493]; p = 0.0333) without more recourse to surgery (OR = 1.856 95% CI [0.207-16.612]; p = 0.58). After adjusting for age and stage, screening was no longer a determining factor in the choice of type of surgery (OR = 1.934; 95% CI [0.753-4.975]; p = 0.170). Conclusion: At the age when organized breast cancer screening in France stopped, there was a decrease in survival, a diagnosis at a higher stage and an increase in co-morbidities. Our study shows a change in management with heavier treatment, more complications and a greater loss of autonomy without screening. This pleads for a continuation beyond 75 years of the practice of mammography screening for breast cancer in elderly women.