Rethinking undertreatment in elderly breast cancer patients

In treating the elderly breast cancer patient, there are proponents for both conservative as well as standard treatment. With this background, we aim to determine the impact of undertreatment on recurrence and propose a surgical management plan. Data of patients 70 years old and above were collected from a prospectively maintained database. Of 165 patients in this study period, surgery was performed for 132 patients. In this group, 63 cases were undertreated by conventional definitions. Locoregional recurrence (LRR) occurred in three patients while four patients had metastatic recurrence. There was no significant difference in LRR or metastatic recurrence for both the undertreated and adequately treated groups. However, patients who had inadequate locoregional treatment were more likely to have locoregional recurrence. We conclude that standard locoregional treatment should be offered to these patients as the procedures are low risk in nature and will provide better loco-regional control of the disease.