Elderly women with cancer are often treated non-aggressively. Between January 1972 and March 1984, 128 women greater than 60 years were treated for Stage I or II breast cancer with segmental mastectomy (SGM) plus/minus postoperative radiation at one of our four area hospitals. Whereas 82% of similar patients less than 60 years were referred for postop radiation, only 39.8% of patients greater than 60 were so referred. Referral rates progressively diminished with increasing patient age above 60. Thus, we reviewed the outcome of 77 elderly women treated with SGM and 51 treated with SGM+RT. Treatment groups were similar with regard to prognostic clinical and histologic parameters. Mean follow-up is 51.4 months. Among SGM patients, 45.5% of patients between 60-70 years, 37.9% of those greater than 70, and 20% of those greater than 80 years experienced loco/regional failure prior to death. Conversely, only two local failures occurred among all elderly women treated with SGM+RT. Distant failure was approximately 11% and was unaffected by treatment. Complications of SGM+RT were modest. These data suggest that SGM+RT can be safely and effectively applied to the elderly. Moreover, the data suggests that postop radiation may be more beneficial when extended to elderly patients post segmental mastectomy than among younger women. Referring surgeons should focus upon their patients' physiologic and not chronologic age as a basis for treatment allocation decisions.