Open AccessPresent Status of Adjuvant Chemotherapy for Elderly Breast Cancer Patients
Author(s) -
Sibylle Loibl,
Mattea Reinisch
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
breast care
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.767
H-Index - 30
eISSN - 1661-3805
pISSN - 1661-3791
DOI - 10.1159/000345867
Subject(s) - medicine , breast cancer , chemotherapy , disease , adjuvant chemotherapy , oncology , clinical trial , adjuvant , cancer , geriatric oncology , intensive care medicine
Elderly breast cancer patients are underrepresented in clinical trials, leading to a lack of knowledge regarding their tolerance of modern chemotherapy regimens. In addition, physicians are often reluctant to treat older patients with chemotherapy due to potential side effects. This article summarizes the up-to-date literature on chemotherapy in elderly patients with breast cancer, evaluates the impact of the patients' comorbidities and treatment alterations and aims to encourage treating patients adequately according to their disease in combination with the biological age rather than the chronological age alone. Finally, a short overview is given of the recruiting studies in Europe evaluating chemotherapy in elderly patients.