Age and gender as factors in cancer therapy.

Cancer is already a disease of the elderly, and this will be increasingly the case as US population demographics continue to shift. The existing patterns of care for older cancer patients must be changed to improve the current cancer survival statistics. High technology innovations are not a prerequisite to improve our current results. The current best standards of care for cancer screening and treatment must be applied to the older woman. Although older patients may seem more comfortable (at least to a physician) with a paternalistic style of practice than younger patients, it is not in their best interest to exclude them from participation in their care. The health professional's assessment of the older patient's quality of life may miss the mark, denying them curative treatments as a result. Health care providers must learn to take the time to include older patients in their medical care and to educate them about the benefits of screening and cancer treatment.