Physicians treating older patients with cancer should evaluate the patient’s physiologic, not chronologic, age when determining appropriate care, according to Lodovico Balducci, MD.
“Older age by itself is not a contraindication to the treatment of cancer,” Balducci said. “Age by itself is not a reason to reduce the dose of cancer treatment. Doctors may hurt their older patients, not because they treat them too much, but because they don’t treat them enough.”
