Older women, especially blacks, receive targeted breast cancer treatment at low rates

(University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill) The advent of targeted drugs for a specific type of breast cancer -- HER2 positive -- has dramatically improved survival rates for women with the disease. But a study led by researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center reveals low rates of use of a targeted drug among older women with early-stage breast cancer of this type, and even lower rates for older black women.