Age and Breast Cancer

A breast cancer diagnosis is a scary thing to confront – no matter what your age. But a new study suggests that older women might have more to fear, especially if they have hormone-receptor-positive breast cancer.

The study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, looked at what happened to 10,000 women in nine countries who were diagnosed with this form of cancer. They found that for every 10-year increase in age, the chance of dying from breast cancer went up 20 percent in these women.

Breast cancer tumors are classified as either hormone-receptor-positive or hormone-receptor-negative. The positive tumors are fueled by hormones such as estrogen or progesterone and can be treated with drugs that target these hormones – essentially cutting off the food supply for the tumors.

The researchers conducting this study say they don't know why older women were more likely to die, but one possibility is that they did not receive as aggressive treatment as younger women.

Other scientists commenting in the Journal on the study said that one reason older women may be undertreated is because there is a general assumption that breast cancer isn't as aggressive in older women and the side effects of the treatment may cause more harm that the cancer. It's also possible that other medications older women take for unrelated conditions could interfere with the effectiveness of the breast cancer treatments.