Study: Breast Cancer in Older Women Often Is Undertreated

Breast cancer in women over the age of 80 is frequently undertreated, resulting in a significantly higher death rate, according to Swiss researchers.

Dr. Christine Bouchardy from the Geneva Cancer Registry used data from the registry to evaluate the effect of various courses of treatment on 407 elderly women diagnosed with breast cancer.

Twelve percent of the women received no treatment for their breast cancer, the researchers found, while 32 percent received tamoxifen as the sole therapy. Seven percent had a lumpectomy with no radiation therapy, 14 percent had a lumpectomy plus radiation therapy, the remainder had a mastectomies.

"In this study, only 47 percent of elderly women received standard treatment compared with 91 percent of women aged 50 to 79 years recorded in the registry for the same period," the researchers reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.

As a result, five-year survival was 90 percent for women who had lumpectomies plus other treatment, but only 51 percent for women treated with tamoxifen alone and 46 percent for women who had no treatment.

"Breast cancer treatment in elderly women remains a complex problem for clinicians," the researchers said. "There is disagreement about the optimum treatment.

"Treatment needs to be adapted to the patient's general health status and conditions, but has to offer the best chance of cure, regardless of age," the researchers concluded.

Other Sources: Journal of Clinical Oncology