[Chemotherapy in the elderly patient]

In the past, the clinical approach in elderly cancer patients was different than in younger ones; the natural history of neoplastic disease and the chemotherapy-related toxicity were the main reasons for this behaviour, and frequently over 65 years patients were excluded from chemotherapeutic treatments and from clinical trials. In the last years, according to clinical data, this approach changed and now there is evidence that also old patients (70-80 ys) can be treated with full dose chemotherapy, on condition that no poor performance status and no severe associated disease are present. Nevertheless, because of the increasing number of cancer patients with advanced age, in future it will be necessary to optimize the antineoplastic treatments individualizing chemotherapy and improving the clinical surveillance in this subset of patients. Moreover it will be strategic to identify optimal schedules of treatment in elderly cancer patients.