ArticleAnnals of the Royal College of Surgeons of England2013
A UK national survey of breast surgeons on primary endocrine therapy of early operable breast cancer.
Article in Annals of the Royal College of Surgeons of England, 2013. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 8 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
8 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 26 citations in OpenAlex.
- Defer surgery in operable breast cancer: how long is too long?Breast cancer (Tokyo, Japan) · 2022Pooled it
- Primary endocrine therapy versus surgery plus endocrine therapy for early-stage breast cancer in older women without frailty: a cost-effectiveness and value of implementation analysis.Health economics review · 2025Article
- Comparison of Surgical Outcomes of Breast-Conserving Surgery Performed Under Local and General Anesthesia.ANZ journal of surgery · 2025Article
- Assessment of the Androgen Receptor in Older Women with Primary Breast Cancer: Association with a Panel of Biomarkers and Breast Cancer Specific Survival.Advances in therapy · 2023Article
- Evaluation of overall survival and barriers to surgery for patients with breast cancer treated without surgery: a National Cancer Database analysis.NPJ breast cancer · 2021Article
- Observational cohort study to determine the degree and causes of variation in the rate of surgery or primary endocrine therapy in older women with operable breast cancer.European journal of surgical oncology : the journal of the European Society of Surgical Oncology and the British Association of Surgical Oncology · 2021Observational
- Primary Endocrine Therapy in Older Women with Breast Cancer.Current geriatrics reports · 2017Review
- Why are older women not having surgery for breast cancer? A qualitative study.Psycho-oncology · 2015Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
2 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
introductionA significant proportion of elderly breast cancer patients in the UK have no surgical treatment recorded and appear to be treated with primary endocrine therapy (PET) only. Despite this, PET remains one of the poorly studied areas in breast cancer therapy and very little is known about the practice of PET in the UK.
methodsA questionnaire comprising 14 questions relevant to PET was sent to 489 breast surgeons who were members of the UK Association of Breast Surgery and returned questionnaires were analysed.
resultsOverall, 228 questionnaires (47%) were returned. The vast majority (93%) of surgeons who responded use PET in early operable breast cancer in elderly women unfit for surgery or owing to patient preference but 7% would recommend PET to fit elderly patients. Most (76%) use letrozole. The percentage of elderly patients treated with PET varied from <10% to 70% between surgeons. The majority (77%) of respondents had not formally audited the outcome of their PET patients and over 70% underestimated the expected survival of an 80-year-old woman.
conclusionsMost UK breast surgeons use PET in elderly patients with surgically resectable breast cancer. While most use it in unfit, frail patients, a minority would treat even fit elderly women with PET. Most surgeons have not formally audited the outcome of their patients treated with PET and underestimate the expected survival of elderly patients, which might have an impact on their decision to offer PET rather than surgery.
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