Bernardi Daniele, Errante Domenico, Tirelli Umberto, Salvagno Luigi, Bianco Antonio, Fentiman Ian S
Division of Medical Oncology, Ospedale Civile, Via Forlanini 71, 31029 Vittorio Veneto (TV), Italy.
Cancer Treat Rev. 2006 Jun;32(4):277-88. doi: 10.1016/j.ctrv.2006.03.005. Epub 2006 May 15.
In the last decades there has been an increased interest in the treatment of elderly cancer patients and a change in attitude of both clinicians and their patients has occurred. Drugs are now available that might be considered "elderly-friendly" and the enormous advances in surgical procedures and supportive treatments over the recent years have enabled adverse effects to be minimized. A Geriatric Assessment is increasingly used as a tool to define those patients who are more suitable for aggressive chemotherapy or, on the contrary, palliative treatment. For almost all cancers, older patients are better treated today than they were in the past, even though we are still far from optimal management. Despite the perceived barriers to including elderly patients in clinical trials, there are few data to support excluding them. We must not permit increased age in cancer patients to continue to be an important and independent risk factor for receiving inadequate care.
在过去几十年里，人们对老年癌症患者的治疗越来越感兴趣，临床医生及其患者的态度也发生了变化。现在有一些药物可被视为“对老年人友好”，并且近年来外科手术和支持性治疗取得了巨大进展，使得不良反应能够降至最低。老年评估越来越多地被用作一种工具，以确定哪些患者更适合积极化疗，或者相反，适合姑息治疗。对于几乎所有癌症来说，如今老年患者的治疗情况比过去要好，尽管我们离最佳管理仍有很大差距。尽管人们认为将老年患者纳入临床试验存在障碍，但几乎没有数据支持将他们排除在外。我们绝不能让癌症患者年龄的增加继续成为接受不充分治疗的一个重要且独立的风险因素。
