[Quality of life in elderly cancer patients--need for and benefit of inpatient rehabilitation].
OBJECTIVE
Elderly cancer patients are often excluded from research studies and in turn do not end up receiving treatment according to standard guidelines. While frequent co-morbidity or non-compliance of the patients provides a partial explanation for this the chronological age of the patients also plays a significant role. This presents the question of whether elderly patients have either less or no need for comprehensive treatment such as, for instance, oncological inpatient rehabilitation, and/or whether or not they are able to benefit from it.


METHODS
In a rehabilitation centre in Germany, 339 tumour patients (> or = 70 years) were assessed at the beginning of inpatient rehabilitation regarding quality of life via the EORTC QLQ-C30. Need for rehabilitation was defined as being a clinically relevant difference on the EORTC scales (> or = 10 points) as compared with an age-matched sample of the German general population (n = 276). Four months after completing inpatient rehabilitation patients were asked to fill in the questionnaire again.


RESULTS
On 13 out of 15 EORTC scales, patients reported having more problems than the general population (adjusted for age and sex), whereby 8 domains were also clinically relevant (physical, emotional, social and role functioning, global quality of life, fatigue, appetite loss, constipation and diarrhoea). Low quality of life was associated with higher age (> or = 80 years), as well as gastro-intestinal and urological tumours (not prostate cancer). Significant improvements were achieved in 13 domains and clinically relevant improvements in 8 (physical, emotional, social and role functioning, global quality of life, fatigue, appetite loss, and pain), adjusted for age, sex, and tumour site.


CONCLUSIONS
Tumour patients should not be excluded from rehabilitation only because of their chronological age.
Singer
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Abteilung Sozialmedizin, Universität Leipzig. susanne.singer@medizin.uni-leipzig.de
Schulte
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D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D005260:Female; D005858:Germany; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008603:Mental Health; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000150:complications / Q000523:psychology / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D011788:Quality of Life; D012047:Rehabilitation Centers / Q000592:standards*