%0 Journal Article
%T The role of proton beam therapy in the management of elderly breast cancer patients
%A Benjamin J. Rich
%A Bosco Giap
%A David Asher
%A Huan Giap
%J SCIE-indexed Journal
%D 2020
%R 10.21037/tcr.2019.07.40
%X In 2019, an estimated 268,600 women will be diagnosed with breast cancer in the United States making breast cancer responsible for 30% of new female cancer diagnoses (1). Breast cancer prevalence increases dramatically with age such that an American woman over age 70 has a one out of fifteen probability of receiving a new breast cancer diagnosis (1). Elderly women tend to present with more favorable breast tumors: smaller tumor sizes, higher steroid receptor expression, lower rates of proliferation, less poorly differentiated and fewer nodal metastases (2-4). Despite their more favorable tumor characteristics, breast cancer carries a worse prognosis in this population regardless of cancer stage (5,6). Co-morbid conditions play a role in the decrease in overall survival (OS) with advancing age (7-9), but breast cancer disease-specific survival (DFS) is also worse in elderly patients (5). This may possibly be due to an inability to tolerate aggressive therapy for locally advanced disease
%U http://tcr.amegroups.com/article/view/30738/html