Begg C B, Cohen J L, Ellerton J
Cancer Clin Trials. 1980;3(4):369-74.
Cancer management of the elderly is a topic which has received relatively little attention. This is surprising in view of the fact that approximately 50% of all cancers occur in patients over 65 years of age. In this paper, six terminated studies of the Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group involving approximately 3000 cancer patients have been examined to characterize the nature and extent of the susceptibility to toxicity of elderly patients undergoing chemotherapy for cancer. The six studies were restricted to three primary sites: lung, breast, and colorectum. The results indicate that elderly cancer patients in the study did not experience any increase in the frequency or severity of the toxicity of chemotherapy. The data do not indicate any systematic bias in patient selection with respect to important clinical variables such as performance status, prior treatment, and presence of liver metastases. Compliance with dosage regimen as prescribed by the protocol was similar for each age group during the course of studies. Comparability was further indicated by the fact that the response rates among the elderly were equivalent to the rest of the patient population. The results have important implications for cancer management of the elderly.
老年癌症患者的管理是一个相对较少受到关注的话题。鉴于所有癌症患者中约有50%发生在65岁以上的人群中，这一点令人惊讶。在本文中，对东部肿瘤协作组的六项已结束的研究进行了考察，这些研究涉及约3000名癌症患者，目的是描述老年癌症患者接受化疗时毒性易感性的性质和程度。这六项研究仅限于三个主要部位：肺、乳腺和结肠直肠。结果表明，研究中的老年癌症患者化疗毒性的频率或严重程度并未增加。数据并未表明在患者选择方面，就诸如体能状态、既往治疗和肝转移情况等重要临床变量存在任何系统性偏差。在研究过程中，每个年龄组对方案规定的剂量方案的依从性相似。老年患者的缓解率与其他患者群体相当，这一事实进一步表明了可比性。这些结果对老年癌症患者的管理具有重要意义。
