Breast cancer in older woman: can axillary dissection be omitted?

Older patients with breast cancer are generally fragile and the surgical therapy must be evaluated for each singular patient because of the high mortality due to systemic diseases and the shorter expectancy of life. In the elderly, the role of axillary treatment remains controversial. In patients with early breast cancer the axillary nodes are often uninvolved on surgical dissection and this procedure is responsible for functional sequelae, mainly arm oedema.