Surgery in older cancer patients - recent results and new techniques: worth the investment?

Recent developments in oncogeriatric surgery focus on several items - preoperative risk estimation and identification of frail patients and optimalization of perioperative care. New screening tools are being evaluated and show promising results. There is increasing evidence that preoperative training of frail patients might decrease the rate of postoperative complications and increase survival. The recent trend towards individualized treatment schemes will certainly be of benefit for the elderly population. More tools are becoming available to answer the most difficult question of all, namely whether surgery is the optimal treatment in this individual frail elderly oncogeriatric patient.