Breast cancer mortality of older patients with and without recurrence analysed by novel multi-state models.

Introduction: In older patients with breast cancer, the risk of dying from other causes than breast cancer strongly increases after the age of 70. The aim of this study was to assess contributions of breast cancer mortality versus other-cause mortality after locoregional or distant recurrence in a population-based cohort of older patients analysed by multi-state models.

Methods: Surgically treated patients ≥70 years diagnosed with stage I-III breast cancer in 2003-2009 were selected from the Netherlands Cancer Registry.