Antineoplastic Pharmacotherapy in the Elderly

farmakoloji-11-2-2023-wos

Hüseyin Salih SEMİZa , Mukaddes GÜMÜŞTEKİNb

aDokuz Eylül University Oncology Institute, Department of Preventive Oncology, İzmir, Türkiye
bDokuz Eylül University Faculty of Medicine, Department of Medical Pharmacology, Division of Clinical Pharmacology, İzmir, Türkiye

ABSTRACT
In our world where the population is getting older, cancer is an increasingly important public health problem. Considering the fact that more than half of all cancers occur in patients aged 65 years and older, it is obvious that physicians will encounter an increasing number of elderly cancer patients. Increasing comorbidities with aging, increasing rates of drug use and some physiological changes reveal the need for treatment of elderly cancer patients by experienced multidisciplinary teams. It has become unacceptable to depend only on chronological age when deciding on systemic treatment in elderly cancer patients. Many parameters such as comorbidities, performance score, life expectancy, patient expectations, treatment benefit, potential harms related to treatment should be considered in detail and dynamically before, during and after systemic treatment of elderly cancer patients. Another important issue to be considered is polypharmacy. It should not be forgotten that polypharmacy may have lifethreatening consequences. These detailed evaluations should be carried out in the light of international guidelines and with the support of a multidisciplinary team.
Keywords: Cancer; antineoplastic agents; elderly

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