Tamoxifen as initial sole treatment of localised breast cancer in elderly women: a pilot study

Abstract

Breast lumps that develop in elderly women are most likely to be mammary carcinomas. Often such women have never been to hospital and the prospect of admission is alarming to them. The presence of intercurrent illnesses in women aged 70 years and over who develop breast cancer is, as might be expected, extremely high, increasing the risk of anaesthesia and surgery. These patients often ask whether, instead of being excised, their breast lumps can be 'dispersed'. In a four-year pilot study we treated elderly women with apparently localised breast cancer with tamoxifen in view of its proved efficacy in advanced breast cancer in this age group.