New diagnosis
i am 79 years of age and have just had a shock diagnosis and mastectomy. One of the lymph nodes showed micrometastasis fully enclosed. I am very afraid if I have to have chemo at my age. I am heal...
Forum Discussion
Dear @eewart, I am really feeling for you. A cancer diagnosis for older people raises all kinds of different issues. Being older changes your perspective on what you really value and what you want to do with the remaining years, however many they may be. For most, quality of life becomes of greatest importance. There are a number of older women on this forum although no special category or anything. I was 72 when diagnosed, now almost 75, and I had a mastectomy, radiation and am on Femara. I said no to chemo, partly on the advice of a very senior specialist, a Professor at a major Sydney hospital. He said chemo just doesn't work so well on older women, although of course it depends a lot on what the precise diagnosis is. So the pathology will be the first thing you need to focus on with your oncologist. Most older women (around 75% apparently) have HR and PR positive and HER -ve, often with relatively slower growing tumours. If you are not in that 75% then the recommendations may be for more aggressive treatment including chemo. There are big differences in the approach of different doctors and hospitals. There are a few thing to keep in mind. Most of the clinical trials on which choice of chemo is based do not include older women, or only very few of them. The best statistical predictors take your age into account, but even then very few include valid studies for women 80 and over. I don't know how you feel about scientific papers etc, it can all make your eyes glaze over for sure, but I found this paper interesting in that it focuses on precisely these issues.
https://ascopubs.org/doi/full/10.1200/JOP.2015.010207
It's a 2015 paper and I think there have been others since.
Anyway, the short message is: you will need to make your own choices depending on your priorities and what matters most to you, in combination with the diagnosis and the pathology of your cancer. As you start to go into these issues make sure to talk to your cancer nurse, or a McGrath nurse, or call the helpline here for discussion and possible suggestions. And feel free to get in touch any time if there are extra questions you may have. All best wishes and positive thoughts to you.
Annski.
https://ascopubs.org/doi/full/10.1200/JOP.2015.010207
It's a 2015 paper and I think there have been others since.
Anyway, the short message is: you will need to make your own choices depending on your priorities and what matters most to you, in combination with the diagnosis and the pathology of your cancer. As you start to go into these issues make sure to talk to your cancer nurse, or a McGrath nurse, or call the helpline here for discussion and possible suggestions. And feel free to get in touch any time if there are extra questions you may have. All best wishes and positive thoughts to you.
Annski.