Age as it relates to chemo

cubbieblue

I've seen some people post that their team has recommended chemo "due to their age," and conversely others state that they were able to skip chemo due to their age. I really don't understand how age in itself is a deciding factor as to chemo. Can someone explain the rationale behind that? Thanks.

ccristee

I am 37, and had chemo even though the cancer wasn't in my lymph nodes and my margins were clear. Through all my conversations with doctors, I got the impression that if you are diagnosed before 40, that they treat it more aggressively, because you have a longer life span ahead of you where re-occurrence could happen, so they want to kill any random cancer cells that may be floating around in your body before they are able to develop into something bigger.

ChiSandy

Also, sometimes the older you are (especially past 65 or 70) the less well you may be able to tolerate chemo, especially as relates to heart and immune issues.

BrooksideVT

Other than the general health of the patient, the main criteria seems to be how aggressive the individual cancer is. In general, it seems older women tend to have less aggressive tumors.

bevin

Hi there

I was young at diagnosis and so offered chemo in spite of low onco type. Reason being, I am young and have more time for BC to recur. I am also young which generally means more aggressive cancer and more likely I could manage side effects.

My Mom, was 78 at diagnosis. They did not recommend chemo "due to her age" and other co-existing illnesses. She more likely physically could not handle the SEs. Also her remaining life span is likely shorter and chemo may not bring the long term benefit hoped for. The actual benefit from chemo would be low for her.

Hope this helps, its how my Onco explained it to me.

cubbieblue

Thanks for the responses everyone. What you say makes perfect sense! I guess when people are claiming that they did or did not do chemo because of their age, there are actually things other than age being considered as well. It disturbed me to hear women my age (mid 50s) foregoing chemo at their MO's recommendation based on their age. They must not be mentioning the other factors that went into their decisions.

BrooksideVT

I don't know much about chemo, Cubbieblue, but I was told that studies showed early stage women aged about 70 (decidedly not 50) could possibly/probably skip rads.