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NCCN Guidelines Insights: Older Adult Oncology, Version 2.2016
Noam VanderWalde1, Reshma Jagsi1, Efrat Dotan1
1From St. Jude Children's Research Hospital/The University of Tennessee Health Science Center; University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center; Fox Chase Cancer Center; UC San Diego Moores Cancer Center; The Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins; City of Hope Comprehensive Cancer Center; Duke Cancer Institute; University of Colorado Cancer Center; The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center; Moffitt Cancer Center; Fred & Pamela Buffett Cancer Center; Yale Cancer Center/Smilow Cancer Hospital; Mayo Clinic Cancer Center; Dana-Farber/Brigham and Women's Cancer Center; Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center; Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center of Northwestern University; Stanford Cancer Institute; The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center - James Cancer Hospital and Solove Research Institute; Roswell Park Cancer Institute; UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center; Huntsman Cancer Institute at the University of Utah; Case Comprehensive Cancer Center/University Hospitals Seidman Cancer Center and Cleveland Clinic Taussig Cancer Institute; Consultant; Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center/Seattle Cancer Care Alliance; Siteman Cancer Center at Barnes-Jewish Hospital and Washington University School of Medicine; and National Comprehensive Cancer Network.
Abstract:
Cancer is the leading cause of death in older adults aged 60 to 79 years. Older patients with good performance status are able to tolerate commonly used treatment modalities as well as younger patients, particularly when adequate supportive care is provided. For older patients who are able to tolerate curative treatment, options include surgery, radiation therapy (RT), chemotherapy, and targeted therapies. RT can be highly effective and well tolerated in carefully selected patients, and advanced age alone should not preclude the use of RT in older patients with cancer. Judicious application of advanced RT techniques that facilitate normal tissue sparing and reduce RT doses to organs at risk are important for all patients, and may help to assuage concerns about the risks of RT in older adults. These NCCN Guidelines Insights focus on the recent updates to the 2016 NCCN Guidelines for Older Adult Oncology specific to the use of RT in the management of older adults with cancer.
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