Of all the factors that can increase a person’s risk of breast cancer, age is among the most significant. Almost half of people diagnosed with breast cancer are at least 65, and about 20% are 75 or older. Despite these rates, older women are frequently excluded from clinical trials; one study of breast cancer trials found that only 9% of participants were 65 or older, leaving physicians with a poorer understanding of how drugs behave in older adults and fewer guidelines with which to treat them.
There’s increasing evidence that these patients could benefit from more tailored treatments. Neil Carleton, a cancer biologist and first-year resident physician at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, said that breast tumors can develop and grow differently in older patients than in younger ones because of hormone levels and inflammation.
