title: [Chemotherapy for gastrointestinal cancer patients in elderly].
abstract: It is expected that incidence of gastrointestinal cancers in elderly would increase. However limited data for chemotherapy is available for such patients. Elderly patients with good condition are considered as candidates for standard chemotherapy. Prolonged survival is expected even in elderly patients same as young with caution for toxicity. Decisions to deliver combination chemotherapy are to be dependent on status of comorbidity. Personalized approach is highly recommended because of insufficiency of organic functions, which is not apparent with standard examinations. For some patients to start with one level reduced dosage is reasonable with intent to escalation and de-escalation based on adverse events. Importance of prospective randomized trial would never diminish for elderly.
authors.affiliation: Dept. of Frontier Science for Cancer and Chemotherapy, Osaka University Graduate School of Medicine.
authors.forename: Taroh
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Satoh
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000971:Antineoplastic Combined Chemotherapy Protocols / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000627:therapeutic use; D005770:Gastrointestinal Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy*; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D017410:Practice Guidelines as Topic