A new study from the Leiden University Medical Center in the Netherlands shows that postmenopausal women with hormone receptor-positive breast cancer were more likely to die from their illness than their younger counterparts.
The study appears in the February 8 issue of JAMA and cites background information that includes that this type of cancer appears in 1.4 million new cases worldwide (as of 2008) and 41% of those cases are in women over age 65.
The study analyzed the cases of 9,766 patients that fit the profile for HR-P breast cancer, categorizing their ages as under 65, 65-74, and 75 or older. Outcomes found that women over age 65 had a higher risk of mortality and that risk grew with age. Only deaths from the cancer or related to it were recorded as part of the study's outcome - deaths for unrelated reasons were not counted.
The authors of the study believe that this data warrants more study to find correlating root causes for the higher mortality rate.
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