Table 2 Associations of age (years) at diagnosis with palliative therapy in patients with recurrent metastatic breast cancer from a breast cancer cohort in China between 1989 and 2020

Palliative chemotherapy

< 0.001

 No/ unknown

746 (45.60)

148 (40.77)

533 (45.44)

65 (65.00)

 Yes

890 (54.40)

215 (59.23)

640 (54.56)

35 (35.00)

Palliative radiotherapy

0.259

 No/ unknown

1,437 (87.84)

311 (85.67)

1,035 (88.24)

91 (91.00)

 Yes

199 (12.16)

215 (59.23)

138 (11.76)

9 (9.00)

Palliative hormonal therapy

0.013

 No/ unknown

1,055 (64.49)

212 (58.40)

772 (65.81)

71 (71.00)

 Yes

581 (35.51)

151 (41.60)

401 (34.19)

29 (29.00)

Palliative target therapy

0.077

 No/ unknown

1,494 (91.32)

326 (89.81)

1,071 (91.30)

97 (97.00)

 Yes

142 (8.68)

37 (10.19)

102 (8.70)

3 (3.00)

No. of regimens

0.003

 One

577 (35.27)

122 (33.61)

418 (35.64)

37 (37.00)

 Tow

375 (22.92)

102 (28.1)

261 (22.25)

12 (12.00)

 Three

147 (8.99)

39 (10.74)

103 (8.78)

5 (5.00)

 Four

11 (0.67)

3 (0.83)

8 (0.68)

0 (0.00)

 Unknown

526 (32.15)

97 (26.72)

383 (32.65)

46 (46.00)

One regimen

0.125

 Only chemotherapy

374 (64.82)

76 (62.29)

278 (66.51)

20 (54.05)

 Only radiotherapy

13 (2.25)

2 (1.64)

8 (1.91)

3 (8.11)

 Only hormonal therapy

183 (31.72)

41 (33.61)

128 (30.62)

14 (37.84)

 Only target therapy

7 (1.21)

3 (2.46)

4 (0.96)

0 (0.00)

Two regimens

0.190

 Chemo- and radiotherapy

60 (16.00)

17 (16.67)

42 (16.09)

1 (8.33)

 Chemo- and hormonal

239 (63.73)

65 (63.73)

166 (63.60)

8 (66.67)

 Chemo- and target

59 (15.73)

15 (14.71)

43 (16.48)

1 (8.33)

 Radiotherapy and hormonal

10 (2.67)

2 (1.96)

6 (2.30)

2 (16.67)

 Radiotherapy and target

0 (0.00)

0 (0.00)

0 (0.00)

0 (0.00)

 Hormonal and target

7 (1.87)

3 (2.94)

4 (1.53)

0 (0.00)