Medicus, Vol. 14 No. 2_Gerijatrija, 2005.
Review article
The Elderly and Cancer
Marija Strnad
Abstract
The consequence of the life expectancy
getting longer and the number of the elderly increasing is
more and more cancer patients and people dying from cancer.
This is now the case in Croatia. The leading sites for cancer
among male elders are bronchus, lungs, prostate, colon,
stomach, urinary bladder and larynx; meanwhile among
female population are breast, colon, stomach, bronchus, lungs
and uterus. What matters for reducing the risk of cancer is
adopting, that is, maintaining healthy habits. The success of
the treatment primarily depends on the early detection of the
disease. Besides self-examination, particularly important when
skin is in question, there are several tests for discovering breast
cancer, cervix cancer, colon cancer and prostate cancer. The
elderly have less chance for being cured because of the chronic
diseases they suffer from, poor functional status and because
they do not take the aggressive therapies well. The fi rst step in
deciding about screening, as well as therapy, is overall geriatric
patient treatment including evaluation of all of the existing
comorbide states, the polypharmatic degree and the presence
of geriatric syndromes. Regarding the problem specifi city of
the malignant diseases affecting the elderly, there is a need for
developing geriatric oncology as a separate clinic subspeciality.
Keywords
the elderly; cancer incidence; risk of cancer; prevention; screening
Hrčak ID:
18882
URI
Publication date:
17.10.2005.
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