[Diagnostic and therapeutic characteristics of breast cancer in elderly women. Groupe Sein du Centre Alexis Vautrin]

Because of its high incidence and the high number of deaths induced, breast cancers in elderly women is a major health problem. The diagnosis is often clinical and the tumors are often at advanced stage with many initial metastases due to some neglect. Breast cancer in elderly women has no specific radiological form and is more often infiltrating ductal carcinoma of SBR grade I. Hormonal receptors are generally higher in elderly than in young women. Surgery of breast cancers with equal anesthetic risks factors does not induce more complications in elderly women than in the general population. In 12% of cases, an associated pathology influences the decision (degradation of the respiratory or cardiovascular function or reduction of the renal function). Between 70 and 80 years, provided that life expectancy is compatible with radiotherapy, corollary to conservative treatments in the present state of our knowledge for tumors under 3 to 4 cm, there is an alternative between radiosurgical conservative treatment and modified mastectomy associated with axillary dissection. In case of bulky tumors (3 to 4 cm) and failure of the hormonal treatment or impossibility to perform a complementary radiotherapy treatment (for instance, senile dementia), of axillary node involvement, a fortiori if the tumor has no hormonal receptors, the modified mastectomy with axillary dissection remains the therapeutic standard. In case of bulky tumor, the hormonal status can be used to induce the patient to accept an operation and, if necessary, to perform a conservative surgery. However, despite hormonosensitivity of breast cancer, a tumoral progression after a mean duration of hormonosensitivity of 25 months is to be expected in 93% of the cases, included 25% in whom a complete response to hormonotherapy was observed. A fractionated irradiation delivering 2 Gy per fraction and 5 fractions per week with a total number of sessions of 25 gives better esthetical results. This optimal treatment lasts 5 weeks and the patients often get tired since they are old and their radiotherapy centre is far from their house. Therefore hypofractionated treatment (once a week) should be proposed. The adjuvant medical treatment of reference for menopausal women is hormonotherapy by tamoxifen. Breast cancer in elderly women reduces life expectancy at 5 years by 50%; the theoretical therapeutic indications are the same as for young women, but their application is adapted to the patient. It would be dangerous and illusive to undertreat such a disease when the life expectancy is longer than 3 years.