BOSTON – For women undergoing results of recent studies suggest.
Andrew D. Bowser/MDedge News
Dr. Solange E. Cox
The procedure was “surgically safe” in older patients, with complication rates comparable to those seen in younger patients, Solange E. Cox, MD, of MedStar Georgetown University Hospital, Washington, said in a presentation of one those two retrospective analyses at the annual clinical congress of the American College of Surgeons.
“From this, we think that eligible older patients should be offered a nipple-sparing mastectomy as a surgical option for breast cancer, and age alone should not be used as criteria to exclude these patients from the option,” she said.
The second retrospective study showed that patients undergoing neoadjuvant chemotherapy had a rate of surgical complications and unintended reoperations comparable to what was seen in women undergoing primary surgery.
“Our big-picture takeaway from this study is that receipt of neoadjuvant chemotherapy is not a contraindication for nipple-sparing mastectomy,” said investigator Alex J. Bartholomew, MS, also of Medstar Georgetown University Hospital.
Mr. Bartholomew’s conclusion was based on an analysis of the nipple-sparing mastectomy registry of the American Society of Breast Surgeons that included a total of 3,125 breasts. Neoadjuvant chemotherapy was used in 528, or 16.9%, while primary surgery was performed in 2,597, or 83.1%.
The overall rate of complications was 11%, with nonsignificant differences between the neoadjuvant chemotherapy and primary surgery groups at 12.7% and 10.7%, respectively.
Andrew D. Bowser/MDedge News
Alex J. Bartholomew
The rate of unintended reoperation, at 4.9%, was not significantly different in the neoadjuvant chemotherapy and primary surgery groups, at 5.2% and 4.8%, Mr. Bartholomew said. Similarly, he found that the rate of nipple areolar complex loss of 1% overall was not different between groups.
Advanced age was likewise not associated with increased complications in the study presented by Dr. Cox, which was a retrospective review of data for patients undergoing nipple-sparing mastectomy from 1998 to 2015 at a single institution. That cohort included 38 patients age 60 years or older, and 358 younger patients.
The rate of complications was 15.5% for patients over age 60 years, and similarly, 13.0% for their younger counterparts (P = .590), Dr. Cox reported. Likewise, the rate of unintended operations was 13.3% and 15.3% for older and younger patients, respectively (P = .274).
These findings are important because advancing age has been associated with a decrease in the likelihood of nipple-sparing mastectomy, according to Dr. Cox.
For mastectomies in general, advanced age has been implicated as a potential risk factor for necrosis, technical complications, and poor outcomes with mastectomies. However, no prior studies had been done specifically to evaluate nipple-sparing mastectomies in older breast cancer patients, Dr. Cox said.
Nipple-sparing mastectomy provides both cosmetic and psychosocial benefits to patients, according to the researchers, because the procedure spares the nipple-areolar complex.
The researchers who had no relevant disclosures.
SOURCES: Cox S et al. SF310 abstract; Bartholomew AJ et al. SF310 abstract ACS Clinical Congress 2018