Prevention and therapy of neutropenia in elderly patients

Standard chemotherapy in elderly patients is still nowadays a difficult issue, due to the fact that marrow reserve decrease with age and the results might lead to higher toxicity of otherwise well tolerated regimen and schedule. In the literature, very few data exist of myelosuppression in patients with solid tumors, while more data have been published on non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. The burden of toxicity increase with age, leading to the fact that some patients with curable or sensitive disease do not receive appropriate treatment. One of the ways to try to circumvent neutropenia is the prophylactic use of haematopoietic growth factors with the double aim of maintaining dose-intensity and reducing toxicity. This paper will describe the patterns of marrow toxicity in treating elderly patients with cancer and the role of haematopoietic growth factors.