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For Release: October 25, 2000
Study Shows Breast Cancer is Aggressive in Elderly
Contrary to a long-held perception, breast cancer can be just as aggressive in elderly women as it is in younger women, a new study has found.
Many doctors have long suspected that breast cancer affecting the elderly is relatively indolent, or less aggressive. As a result, doctors have been reluctant to treat breast cancer in the elderly as aggressively as they do in younger women.
"The risk of cancer spread in the elderly seemed lower," explains Rachana Singh, M.D., from the University of Chicago, Department of Radiation and Cellular Oncology. "Also, doctors feared that since older women are more likely to have comorbid conditions, they would not be able to tolerate aggressive therapy," she adds.
The study examined 1,248 patients ages 40 to 70 and 182 patients older than 70 years, and included only those who were treated with local therapy. It had sought to determine whether a difference in the cancer's aggressiveness was linked to virulence - the rate at which distant disease will occur after diagnosis - or metastagenicity - the ultimate likelihood that a tumor will develop distant disease.
The virulence of the disease was found to be similar across nodal groups, regardless of age. Metastagenicity, although similar in node-positive patients, was shown to be slightly higher in node-negative patients older than 70.
Additionally, the study found that tumor size and nodal status affected virulence and metastagenicity. Age did not.
The results conclude that because breast cancer is similarly aggressive in older patients, treatment of the disease in women over 70 should not be approached differently than that of younger women, but rather treatment should be guided by physiologic age and comorbidities.
The study was presented October 25 at the American Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology annual meeting in Boston, MA.
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