How long does it ordinarily take for untreated breast cancer to cause death in the elderly? Assume stage one, un-metastasized breast cancer.
Background: What made me curious is that my grandmother, 90, has apparently had breast cancer for about a year (thanks for keeping me up to date, Ma). Because of her age and general health, it is being left untreated. Obviously, I am not looking for an answer about my grandmother’s specific case, just a general range of time. The websites I looked at were all (understandably) more focused on treatment and positive outcomes. And lest this story depress anyone, she did have breast cancer once before, but has been cancer-free for almost 50 years.
Anecdotally, I knew a woman who died recently from breast cancer, and she was in her mid 90s. Doctors weren’t confident that she would live any longer with treatment, and that the treatment (surgery and/or chemo) might actually kill her sooner. They opted mainly to treat the symptoms (like pain management), and she lived over a year, maybe even a year and a half. And while it might have contributed to her death, it was actually some other things that sent her health spiraling downward in the last two or three weeks of her life.
Although I cannot find the cite, I learned in medical school that there was actually a study in Britain involving elderly women who were allowed to go as far as their bodies would take them with untreated breast cancer, and the median was something like two to two and a half years.
Anecdotally again, my grandmother was diagnosed with breast cancer in her early nineties. It was her first cancer diagnosis of any type. According to my mother, the doc said that traditional treatment (surgery, chemo and radiation or any combo of them) would be too harsh at her age and that since cells divide more slowly in the elderly, her cancer would be slow growing and probably wouldn’t affect her in any way.
She passed away about three years later of complications due to a stroke. On her death certificate where three causes of death were listed, cancer was not among them.
The amazing thing about Dr. Drake’s story is that his grandmother had fifty years remission! Given the caliber of treatment back then, she has had a wonderful outcome and a very long life.