Objective To summarize the tumor characteristics and the research progress in diagnosis and treatment of elderly patients with breast cancer. Methods To combine the literature review and clinical guidelines, to introduce tumor characteristics, the advance of diagnosis and therapy and expert consensus in elderly breast cancer. Results Compared to the patients in other age group, the elderly patients with breast cancer have special physiological and psychoical characteristics, meanwhile aged patients frequently together with basic disease, the strategy of clinical diagnosis and treatment and prognosis are very different from young and middle-aged patients. Conclusion For the elderly patients with breast cancer, we should formulate the corresponding treatment plan on the premise of the comprehensive evaluation of patients’ life expectancy, with the disease, the degree of benefit, treatment tolerance and other factors.