title: Colorectal cancer treatment in elderly patients: results of a retrospective analysis addressed to the chiefs of medical oncology units in Italy.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The aim of this retrospective analysis was to evaluate the differences of 1-year treatment and chemotherapy related-toxicity in elderly colorectal cancer (CRC) patients in different Italian medical oncology units.
  
  
  METHODS
  An open questionnaire on the management of CRC patients over 70 years of age, from January to December 2004, was sent to Italian centres. One hundred and seventy-five files from 10 centres were analysed. Variables considered were age, gender, educational level, comorbidities and modality of therapy administration.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In only a minority of units were there some staff specifically dedicated to the older patients in close cooperation with geriatricians and the Multidimensional Geriatric Assessment (MGA) was not routinely used (11.2%-16.8% of cases). Only 5.7% patients were routinely enrolled in a protocol. In total, 95 out of 175 (54.3%) of CRC underwent adjuvant chemotherapy and 80 out of 175 (45.7%) received palliative chemotherapy. Of the patients who underwent adjuvant chemotherapy, 75.6% immediately accepted postoperative treatment while 12.2% were initially dubious but subsequently agreed. Only 5.5 and 9.7% of these patients reported very bad or bad tolerability, respectively. At disease progression, 62.5% patients accepted chemotherapy instantly while 33.3% accepted subsequently. Only 1.3% cases reported very bad and 1.3% bad tolerability.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  In those units in which the problem of the elderly is actually recognised, CRC treatment is adequate, not influenced by age discrimination but inhomogeneous. In the future, standardizing treatment in different oncology units could prove to be beneficial to this population.
authors.affiliation: Istituto Oncologico Veneto, IRCCS, Oncologia Medica 2, Padova, Italy. laramary@libero.it
authors.forename: Lara Maria
authors.initials: LM
authors.lastname: Pasetto
authors.forename: Cristina
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Falci
authors.forename: Umberto
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Basso
authors.forename: Giampietro
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Gasparini
authors.forename: Mario
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: D'Andrea
authors.forename: Paola
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Bonginelli
authors.forename: Emilio
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Bajetta
authors.forename: Marco
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Platania
authors.forename: Oscar
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Alabisio
authors.forename: Stefania
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Miraglia
authors.forename: Erica
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Bertona
authors.forename: Francesco
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Oniga
authors.forename: Rita
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Biason
authors.forename: Maria Concetta
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Chetrì
authors.forename: Palma
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Fedele
authors.forename: Giovanna
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Massara
authors.forename: Incoronata
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Romaniello
authors.forename: Maria Emanuela
authors.initials: ME
authors.lastname: Negru
authors.forename: Monica
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Giordano
authors.forename: Giovanna
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Luchena
authors.forename: Franco
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Buzzi
authors.forename: Riccardo
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Ricotta
authors.forename: Salvatore
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Siena
authors.forename: Silvio
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Monfardini
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001290:Attitude; D017024:Chemotherapy, Adjuvant; D015179:Colorectal Neoplasms / Q000628:therapy*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007558:Italy; D008297:Male; D008495:Medical Oncology / Q000458:organization & administration*; D010166:Palliative Care; D010349:Patient Compliance; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires