Breast cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer and leading cause of cancer mortality in women worldwide. The elderly comprise a large part of the breast cancer population, and there are important specific considerations for this population. Late diagnosis and substandard local and systemic therapies are frequent, which is only partially "compensated" by a more indolent tumour behaviour due to the increasing likelihood according to age of potentially hormone sensitive tumour status. Endocrine treatment remains a key component of systemic treatment in both advanced and early setting. However chemotherapy is a valid option, with interest strengthened by proven efficacy in adjuvant setting for aggressive phenotypes, better management of side effects and attempts to develop predictive index for toxicity. The recently reported laboratory studies on potential mechanisms for resistance to endocrine therapies that involve crosstalk between growth factor signalling pathways and hormonal receptors stimulate also new therapeutic approaches.
