[Cancer treatment in the elderly]

Cancer Treatment in the Elderly Recent statistics indicate that in Europe about 25% of the population are over 70 years old. According to demographic developments, including an increase in life expectancy and the ageing of the generations with high birth rates, this trend will certainly continue. Because age is a major determinant of cancer risk, more than half of all newly diagnosed malignancies will occur in this population. Despite the extent of the problem, cancer in the elderly is surprisingly poorly understood and treated. This fact exists not just because of an indifference of individual clinicians, but also because major conferences on oncology devote little, if any, attention to the treatment of cancer in older age groups. According to the resulting restrictive therapeutic strategy and the fact that older patients tend to delay seeking anticancer treatment, recently an increase in cancer mortality was noted in elderly patients as opposed to a decrease in the younger population. It seems imperative that health professionals as well as affected patients become aware that older people are a very heterogeneous patient population with considerable differences in terms of life expectancy, biology, pharmacodynamics, and thus therapeutic treatment options.