title: Issues in the adjuvant treatment of common tumors (with a focus on breast cancer) in older adults (age >70).
abstract: Establishing an indication for adjuvant chemotherapy in older cancer patients represents a major challenge. after surgery, older cancer patients can also have a significant risk of relapse and cancer death (even reported to be higher than in younger patients), but this is counterbalanced by the fact that the chance of dying from a noncancer cause is also much higher. a careful geriatric evaluation including assessment of comorbidity can provide some insight into the life expectancy and expected benefit from adjuvant chemotherapy for individual patients. age-related physiological changes can decrease tolerance of classical chemotherapy regimens, indicating the need for close monitoring and preventive measures.
authors.affiliation: Department of General Medical Oncology, University Hospitals Leuven, Leuven, Belgium. hans.wildiers@uzleuven.be
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Wildiers
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000453:epidemiology; D017024:Chemotherapy, Adjuvant / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000379:methods; D015897:Comorbidity; D005260:Female; D015577:Geriatric Assessment; D006801:Humans; D008017:Life Expectancy; D012008:Recurrence