BURLINGTON, Vt., March 1 (UPI) -- Older women in good health tend to benefit from chemotherapy for treating breast cancer, U.S. researchers said Tuesday.
Researchers at the Vermont Cancer Center and the Cancer and Leukemia Group B analyzed data from four randomized clinical trials of treatments for lymph-node-positive breast cancer cases between 1975 and 1999. The trials compared more-aggressive with less-aggressive chemotherapy treatments. The trials included a total of 6,487 lymph-node-positive breast cancer patients, 8 percent of whom were age 65 or older and 2 percent were 70 or older.
The data showed both older women and younger women treated with chemotherapy had reduced breast-cancer mortality and recurrence, the researchers reported in the Journal of American Medical Association.
Overall survival was significantly worse for patients age 65 or older from causes other than breast cancer. Only 33 deaths occurred among the total sample that were attributed to the breast cancer, although the older women had higher mortality despite the treatment.
About 50 percent of new breast-cancer diagnoses occur in women in the older age group, the researchers said.
