Given that increasing age is a risk factor for breast cancer, breast cancer is not uncommonly found in women over 70. Does breast cancer have different biological characteristics in old women? What about treatment and prognosis? Below we summarize the results of some of the studies concerning breast cancer in old women that are scheduled to be presented in early June at the American Society of Clinical Oncology annual meeting in Chicago:

• The biology of breast cancer appears to change with age, with increasing expression of ER and cell differentiation markers, and decreasing expression of proliferation markers. This pattern is consistent with reduced aggressiveness of the disease with advancing age.
• Women over 70 with early stage ER+ who are treated with tamoxifen without surgery appear to have better five-year breast cancer specific survival if clinical benefit of the treatment can be demonstrated at six months. Stronger ER positivity, which can be obtained before treatment decisions are made, also appears to be an excellent surrogate marker for clinical response and survival outcome.
• Among patients aged at least 80, the majority are eligible for, and opt for, lumpectomy or other breast conservation surgery. Standard adjuvant hormonal treatments are used in the majority of cases, but chemotherapy is used less often. Overall outcomes in this population are relatively favorable, with only a minority suffering recurrence of disease or death from breast cancer within the following few years.
• Survival times are not shorter for older stage IV breast cancer patients with triple negative (ER-/PR-/HER2-) disease compared to other, typically less aggressive forms of breast cancer.