Experience with eribulin in the treatment of elderly women with metastatic breast cancer: case studies

• Published in: Future oncology (London, England) Vol. 14; no. 7s; pp. 21 - 27
• Main Authors: Garrido, Maria Lomas, Morago, Ana Jaén, Rovira, Pedro Sánchez, Olarte, Paula Espinosa, Sánchez, Cristina Pernaut, Sánchez, Luis Manso
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England Future Medicine Ltd 01-03-2018
• Subjects: Abdomen; Age; Aged; Aged, 80 and over; Antineoplastic Agents - therapeutic use; Biopsy; Breast cancer; Breast Neoplasms - drug therapy; Breast Neoplasms - pathology; Cancer therapies; Carcinoma, Ductal, Breast - drug therapy; Catheters; Chemotherapy; elderly; Endocrine therapy; eribulin; Female; Fentanyl; Furans - therapeutic use; Humans; Ketones - therapeutic use; Lymphatic system; Mastectomy; Metastasis; metastatic breast cancer; Patients; Pleural effusion; Radiation therapy; Scintigraphy; Tomography; Treatment Outcome; Womens health; Spain; elderly; eribulin; metastatic breast cancer
• ISSN: 1479-6694; 1744-8301
• DOI: 10.2217/fon-2017-0357

Although advancing age can greatly increase the complexities of treating metastatic breast cancer, chronological age alone is insufficient to determine the type or intensity of treatment. Older patients require an individualized approach that takes into account the patient's physical ability, social circumstances and mental capacity to tolerate treatment. This section features three older women treated with eribulin for metastatic breast cancer. In the first case, a 70-year-old woman maintained stable disease into her 34th month of treatment with third-line eribulin. In the remaining cases, two heavily pretreated women (80 and 90 years, respectively) with metastatic disease and liver involvement presented objective radiological benefit to later-line eribulin along with prolonged clinical improvement and good tolerability.