Breast Cancer: Current Research
Open Access

Research Article

Treatment of Breast Cancer in Women Aged 80 and Older: A Systematic Review

University of California San Diego Health System La Jolla, CA, USA

*Corresponding Author:

Sarah Blair
University of California San Diego Health System La Jolla
CA, USA
Tel: (858) 822-1230
E-mail: slblair@ucsd.edu

Received date: October 10, 2016; Accepted date: November 07, 2016; Published date: November 12, 2016

Citation: Blair S, Robles J, Weiss A, Ward E, Unkart J (2016) Treatment of Breast Cancer in Women Aged 80 and Older: A Systematic Review. Breast Can Curr Res 1:115. doi:10.4172/2572-4118.1000115

Copyright: © 2016 Blair S, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Background: The elderly population is growing in the United States. Most clinical trials exclude patients over 80, therefore there is a paucity of data regarding the correct treatment of this group. The purpose of this systematic review was to investigate the treatment patterns for women with primary breast cancer aged 80 years old and older - modalities include surgery, chemotherapy, radiation and hormonal treatment, alone or in combination.

Methods: A formal systematic review was performed with the support of the medical research librarian at the University of California San Diego Biomedical Library. PubMed and Web of Science were the databases used. A patient population of 2,947 was derived from the 16 papers reviewed.

Results: Patients diagnosed over 80 were more likely to be diagnosed by clinical exam. Patients who had standard surgical treatment had an improved disease free survival. Surgical resection and radiation had a low morbidity.

Conclusion: Multimodality treatment is safe in elderly women and is associated with better breast cancer specific survival outcomes.

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