Older women can benefit from chemotherapy for breast cancer

Reported by Susan Aldridge, PhD, medical journalist

Age alone should not be a barrier to the use of chemotherapy among those who have breast cancer if they are in good health.
Almost half of new breast cancers occur in those who are over 65. It is known that chemotherapy improves survival in women aged 50 to 69 years but not much is known of its impact in those over 70. Researchers at the Vermont Cancer Center now present data that suggest that older women can also benefit.

They looked at treatment of women with chemotherapy from 1975 to 1999, of whom two per cent - 159 women - were aged 70 or more. There was no link between age and disease-free survival. In women over 65, survival overall was worse because of other causes. But older and younger women had similar reductions in breast cancer mortality and recurrence if they had chemotherapy.

The findings suggest that older women with fair to good health tolerate chemotherapy - even intensive regimes - almost as well as younger women. But few older women are entered into clinical trials like the ones that generated the data for this study. It is time to end age discrimination when it comes to breast cancer research and treatment so all women can have the benefits.

Source
Journal of the American Medical Association 2nd March 2005 Volume 293 pages 1073-1081