This is the first edition of ”Radiotherapy and Current Developments in Geriatric Cancers” which is a teaching book directed at international students of radiotherapy, geriatric oncology, and medical oncology. Related with increasing life expectancy, the world population is aging. Health problems mostly including cancer that accompany aging require many social, economic and ethical process management. Cancer, which is definitely a disease associated with aging, is a global health problem that has a high response rate to treatment when detected at an early stage and can be cured when well managed.

Radiotherapy is a non-surgical cancer treatment that can be used safely in elderly patients as well as in all age groups. Its use is increasing not only for cure purposes, but also before and after surgery and for symptom palliation. Developing technology, international standardization in education and guidelines have expanded the effectiveness and usage area of radiotherapy, and today it is included in the treatment of almost fifty percent of cancer patients.

The idea of preparing this international reference book was encouraged by the scarcity of guidebooks containing current developments and reliable recommendations on geriatric radiotherapy, while the use of radiation therapy in geriatric cancer patients is increasing.

With the aim of both objective evaluation of elderly cancer patients before cancer treatments and compilation of recommended effective and safe radiotherapy doses and schemes in the light of current scientific resources, a team of authors consisting of knowledgeable and experienced radiation oncologists in the field has achieved the goal of making this book available to physicians interested in the subject.

I would like to express my sincere gratitude to all my colleagues who contributed unconditionally to the preparation of this valuable guidebook, and I hope that it will be a guide in the radiotherapy management of our elderly cancer patients.

Prof. Dr. Evrim METCALFE
Editor
İstanbul Medipol University Faculty of Medicine, Department of Radiation Oncology, İstanbul, Türkiye