Older women denied life-saving treatment

WOMEN diagnosed with breast cancer after the age of 70 are twice as likely to die from it, because they are being denied treatment, an international study has found.

The research on more than 200,000 patients found mortality rates were far higher among older women even though the disease was no more aggressive.

Experts said it showed widespread discrimination.

The study, by Genomic Health, a company that has a test for which patients are most likely to benefit from chemotherapy, found older women were less likely to be offered initial tests.

The study was carried out in the US. But experts said it reflected trends in Britain, amid warnings that age discrimination is cutting the lives of older women short.

Last year, a study found older women are three times as likely to die from breast cancer in England as in other European nations.

In some areas, no women over the age of 75 are offered surgery, although it is illegal to deny treatment on the basis of age.

Baroness Delyth Morgan, of Breast Cancer Now, said: “These deeply concerning findings are, unfortunately, highly indicative of the wider picture for breast cancer in older women.

“It’s so important that assumptions aren’t made about a patient’s fitness to receive treatment; some older women are very fit and are able to tolerate intensive therapies.”