Chemotherapy Often Neglected in Postmenopausal Women with Breast Cancer

A recently released study has shown that only a minority of postmenopausal women with surgically treated breast cancer receive adjuvant chemotherapy and its use declines substantially with age.

The decline in follow-up chemotherapy treatment begins at age 45 and has a heavy steep with increasing age. The study demonstrates a large discrepancy between consensus recommendations and clinical practice. A follow-up study is being carried out to determine whether chemotherapy recommendations are overly aggressive or whether practicing oncologists are too conservative in chemotherapy.

Regardless of the outcome of the follow-up study, researchers believe that many unnecessary deaths could be prevented if follow-up chemotherapy guidelines were followed.

(Source: Reuters Health)