Perioperative care/assessment
A number of elderly cancer patients do not receive standard surgery for solid tumors because they are considered unfit for treatment as a consequence of inaccurate estimation of the operative risk. To tailor treatment to onco-geriatric series, oncologists are now beginning to use a comprehensive geriatric assessment (CGA). This study investigates the value of an extended CGA in assessing the suitability of elderly patients for surgical intervention.
Surgical management
Based on the observation that both surgical under-treatment – justified by concerns about unsustainable toxicity – and surgical over-treatment of elderly cancer patients – explained by insufficient assessment of preoperative risk – are too frequent, the taskforce pointed out differences from, and similarities to the younger cohorts of cancer patients, and edicted their first recommendations helping to avoid both under- and over-treatment.