Treatment and patient related quality of life issues in elderly and very elderly breast cancer patients

As the number of aging population increases, a significant amount of elderly cancer patients need more personalized care for their cancer treatment. Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women, and almost half of the newly diagnosed patients are older than the age of 65 years. With their peculiar characteristics, elderly patients with breast cancer should be held with a comprehensive geriatric assessment. It is vital to make the choice of correct treatment more delicately, to better predict the prognosis of the patient and risks associated with specific treatments. The current article focuses on how various methods of treatment in elderly breast cancer affect their quality of life and the challenges they experience among age from 70 to 79 and age from 80 and over subgroups of this population. Treatment (surgery, radiation therapy, chemotherapy, and endocrine therapy) and patient-related (mental health, physical function, frailty, cognitive function, nutrition) quality of life issues are revisited in the light of recent literature.