title: Management of breast cancer in old age.
abstract: In a retrospective survey of 301 women aged over 70 with breast cancer the factors affectingfive-year survival are evaluated. The local disease is more advanced when the patient presents with it in old age than in younger women, possibly associated with a lesser degree of awareness or a long history of the primary tumour. It is not associated with a different average rate of tumour growth in old age, as measured by scar recurrences after surgery. Radical surgery may be followed by a high five-year survival rate in patients carefully selected on medical grounds, but in this unselected series the five-year survival rate was practically the same whether the local disease was limited or extensive at presentation and whatever the treatment given. The probability of five-year survival in a woman over 70 with breast cancer will depend mainly on her general health.
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000401:mortality / Q000532:radiotherapy / Q000601:surgery / Q000628:therapy*; D002921:Cicatrix; D004054:Diethylstilbestrol / Q000627:therapeutic use; D004997:Ethinyl Estradiol / Q000627:therapeutic use; D005260:Female; D006262:Health; D006801:Humans; D008408:Mastectomy; D008875:Middle Aged; D009364:Neoplasm Recurrence, Local; D010166:Palliative Care; D011379:Prognosis; D012189:Retrospective Studies
chemical_list: D004997:Ethinyl Estradiol; D004054:Diethylstilbestrol