At 70, are newer treatments easier for breast cancer?

Question

Hello doctor,

I am reaching out about my grandmother, who is 70 years old and was recently diagnosed with HR-positive breast cancer. She is struggling with the side effects of her current treatment, which includes hormone therapy and chemotherapy.

The fatigue and nausea are particularly tough on her, and we are wondering if any newer treatments or therapies might be more effective and easier to tolerate.

Can you guide us to the latest advancements in treatment options that could help improve her quality of life?

Please help.

Thank you.

Answer 1

Hello,

Welcome to icliniq.com.

I understand your concern.

Usually, hormone-positive breast cancer in 70-year-old women has a good prognosis. But I do not know the stage and HER2/neu (human epidermal growth factor receptor 2) status of your grandmother. Chemotherapy can have side effects like vomiting, nausea, nerve pain, fever, loss of hair, and many more.

Hormone therapy is usually easily tolerable with fewer side effects; if there is severe fatigue and other chemotherapy-induced side effects, the dose of chemotherapy needs to be modified and adjusted each time, and needs to address side effects with medicines and traditional methods.

Some types of early-stage hormone-positive breast cancer need only hormonal therapy, but the decision depends upon the stage and molecular profile, including the Oncotype DX (a genomic assay that analyzes the expression of a group of cancer-related genes in a breast cancer tumor) test.

I hope this helps.

Kindly follow up if you have more concerns.