Older Women and Breast Cancer

Women age 65 years or older constitute half of new breast cancer patients each year, and the number of older women with breast cancer is forecast to double by 2030 as the baby boomers age. Yet despite their increasingly large numbers, older women who develop breast cancer often fail to receive the same care as offered to younger women according to Jeanne Mandelblatt, M.D., of Georgetown University’s Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center. she calls on doctors treating breast cancer in older women to look beyond the year in which a woman was born and to take into account her overall health, frailty and ability to tolerate various cancer treatment.