. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2021 Jun 1.

Published in final edited form as: J Geriatr Oncol. 2019 Dec 30;11(5):850–859. doi: 10.1016/j.jgo.2019.12.010

Table 2.

Projected benefits of radiotherapy, by life expectancy and breast cancer aggressiveness

	Aggressive breast cancer		Non-aggressive breast cancer
	No RT	RT	No RT	RT
10-year overall survival
Short life expectancy	24%	24%	29%	29%
Long life expectancy	72%	77%	92%	92%
10-year local recurrence
Short life expectancy	28%	11%	3%	1%
Long life expectancy	52%	22%	7%	2%

Aggressive breast cancer: high grade, ≥2cm, estrogen receptor-negative, positive margin, ≥4 lymph node involvement

Non-aggressive breast cancer: low grade, 0.5–0.99cm, estrogen receptor-positive, negative margin, no lymph node involvement

Short life expectancy: age ≥85, BMI>25, never smoked, comorbidities of congestive heart failure and diabetes, and difficulty pushing or pulling large objects

Long life expectancy: age 65–69, BMI>25, never smoked, no comorbidities, and no functional impairment