Palliative Care of Cancer in the Older Patient

The scope of palliative care includes goal setting, symptom management, and care of the care giver. Palliative care is essential for patient-centered care of the older cancer patients. The diversity of this population in terms of life expectancy, treatment tolerance, function, disability, and social support mandates personalized treatment plans. The assessment of physiologic age is currently based on a comprehensive geriatric assessment (CGA). A number of biologic markers of aging including the inflammatory index, the genomic clock, the expression of p16INKa4, and the circulating levels of vitamin D may complement the CGA and fine-tune the determination of physiologic age. Goal setting in older patients may be complicated by communication difficulties related to hearing, cognition, expectation, and culture. Cancer-related pain is a major hindrance to the maintenance of functional independence and fatigue is harbinger of disability and death. The article explores the assessment and the management of the most common and debilitating symptoms in older cancer patients.