Elderly are denied breast cancer surgery

ELDERLY women with breast cancer are being denied basic treatment such as surgery and chemotherapy.

More than 55,000 women a year are diagnosed with the disease and the risk of developing it rises with age. Those over 70 make up more than a third of the 55,000.

Treatment for virtually all patients should start with an operation to remove the tumour, yet some women in their 70s, 80s and 90s are being denied surgery.

Experts said doctors feared elderly women might not cope with the treatment – but they are not even properly assessed to establish whether that is the case. They said older women were also missing out on chemotherapy for the same reason.

The Royal College of Surgeons and the Association of Breast Surgery found 90 per cent of breast cancer patients aged 50 to 69 received surgery. But their report into of 142 NHS breast cancer units in England and Wales showed this falls to 85 per cent for those aged 70 to 74; 75 per cent for 75 to 79year-olds; less than 60 per cent between 80 and 84, and below 40 per cent for over-85s.

Women in their 90s have just a 15 per cent chance of receiving surgery.

NHS guidelines say women of all ages with early invasive breast cancer should be offered surgery, radiotherapy and appropriate therapy, unless other illnesses intervene. But the report said: ‘There is evidence these recommendations are not being followed.’