Approach to Breast Cancer Treatment in Elderly Patients

Abstract

Old age should be carefully evaluated before the treatment of all kinds of diseases, not only chronologically but also in functional terms. Regardless of the stage of breast cancer, it is known that older patients benefit from standard treatments as much as younger patients to the extent that they are represented in clinical trials, but we also know that toxicity is augmented in this age group. The elderly patient group is a very heterogeneous group within itself, and it is important to separate the healthier, more fit elderly group who will benefit from standard treatments from the group that can only receive standard treatment with some rehabilitation. In addition, it is one of the most important duties of the clinician to identify patients who cannot tolerate both standard and modified treatments before initiation of the cancer treatment. Today, although there are several Comprehensive Geriatric Evaluation tools which are developed for aiding the clinician for making treatment decisions, most of the elderly patients are not properly evaluated in the busy day to day clinical practice. As an alternative,parameters such as patients daily work, social enviorment, prescirbed medicines for other comorbidities, and the potential side effects of the recommended treatment should be carefully reviewed. The validity of the treatment decisions taken at the start of the treatment should be re-evaluated at each visit and if necessary, modifications should be made to maximize benefit with the least toxicity.