Radiation therapy utilization in Medicare beneficiaries with early-stage breast cancer.

Abstract

There is increasing evidence that radiation therapy (RT) can be omitted for select older patients who are compliant with hormonal blockade, but there is no recent claim-based analysis for determining patterns of care and guiding possible treatment recommendations. Medicare beneficiaries who were 65 years old or older and were diagnosed with breast cancer at 1 of 12 cancer centers affiliated with an academic center in the southeastern United States were analyzed. Stage 0 or I patients treated with lumpectomy from 2012 to 2014 were identified. Patient, treatment, and center characteristics were analyzed for the utilization of RT. Among 800 women treated with lumpectomy, 64% received adjuvant radiation. The median age was 74 years. The omission of RT was more likely in older patients, stage 0 patients, and patients with more comorbidities (P < .01). Hormonal blockade was used in 41% of the patients who did not receive RT. The utilization of hormonal blockade with the omission of RT was more likely in patients with fewer comorbidities (P < .01). In an older cohort of patients who otherwise would have qualified for the omission of radiation, two-thirds were treated with radiation. Future guideline recommendations should address omission in the context of hormonal blockade compliance because only 41% of the patients used hormonal blockade when radiation was not delivered. Cancer 2018;124:475-81. © 2017 American Cancer Society.