title: [Under-use of adjuvant chemotherapy in women aged ≥70 years diagnosed with breast cancer in a university hospital].
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Patient age often limits the therapeutic efforts of the oncologist. The aim of this study was to determine whether chemotherapy is used less frequently in elderly women aged 65-69 years diagnosed with breast cancer, compared to younger women.
  
  
  METHODS
  A retrospective study was performed including women greater than 65 years old who had localised breast cancer and were treated at a University Hospital. Patients were classified into two groups, 65-69 years old and ≥ 70 years old. The differences in patient characteristics, tumour characteristics, chemotherapy treatment and chemotherapy-associated toxicity were analysed in both groups.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A total of 164 women, with an average age of 73.7 years, were included in this study. There were no significant differences in the characteristics of the patients or their tumours. However, 75% of women <70 years old were treated with chemotherapy compared to just 34% of the older women (P<.001). The resulting levels of toxicity were similar between age groups.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Women ≥ 70 years old were treated with chemotherapy less frequently, even though the features and tumour characteristics of the women, as well as the toxicity of the treatment, were similar to that in younger women.
authors: Sección de Oncología Médica, Hospital Virgen de la Luz de Cuenca, Cuenca, España. mjmolinagarrido@hotmail.com
authors: María José
authors: MJ
authors: Molina-Garrido
authors: Carmen
authors: C
authors: Guillén-Ponce
mesh_terms: D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy*; D017024:Chemotherapy, Adjuvant / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D006785:Hospitals, University; D006801:Humans; D012189:Retrospective Studies