Cancer in older adults
Encyclopedia of Biomedical Gerontology, Elsevier, ss.338-350, 2019
- Yayın Türü: Kitapta Bölüm / Araştırma Kitabı
- Basım Tarihi: 2019
- Doi Numarası: 10.1016/b978-0-12-801238-3.62176-1
- Yayınevi: Elsevier
- Sayfa Sayıları: ss.338-350
- Anahtar Kelimeler: Antiemetics, Cancer, Cancer related pain, Chemotherapy, Elderly, Frail, Immunotherapy, Molecular targeted therapies, Palliative therapy, Radiotherapy, Surgery, Vulnerable population
- Sağlık Bilimleri Üniversitesi Adresli: Hayır
Özet
Considering that the world population is getting older, many elderly people and cancer cases in these elderly people are waiting for us in the near future. The increasing comorbidities and the physiological changes that occur with the advanced age make it difficult to make a decision in this group of patients. It is very difficult to talk about a standard treatment approach in many scientific studies that have been done and taking into account the lack of adequate coverage of the elderly patient group. For this reason, there is a need for some guiding parameters in the decisions to be made in elderly cancer patients. There are many scales and large-scale tests developed for this purpose. The most important of these tests is Comprehensive Geriatric Assessment (CGA). Since CGA is a time consuming method, faster scanning tools have been developed. Patients can be divided into three groups according to CGA results: fit, frail and vulnerable. While treatment toxicities and survival are the same as in young patients, frail elderly patients have poor prognosis and treatment toxicities can be destructive. Vulnerable patients may benefit from oncological therapies, but the risk of toxicity and poor survival should not be overlooked. While managing the treatment of elderly cancer patients, it is important to show a holistic approach that is not only based on the age of the calendar but also to the functional age, life expectancy of the patient and the characteristics of the tumor. Considering all these parameters, patients with good performance, long life expectancy and no serious comorbidity should be treated with standard methods such as in young cancer patients.