Highlights
- •Survival from gynaecological cancers is generally worse for women over the age of 65.
- •Geriatric assessment can identify functional deficits that may predict toxicities and outcomes.
- •Trials focusing on older patients incorporating geriatric assessment and biomarkers are needed.
Abstract
The incidence of most gynaecological malignancies rises significantly with increasing
age. With an ageing population, the proportion of women over the age of 65 with cancer
is expected to rise substantially over the next decade. Unfortunately, survival outcomes
are much poorer in older patients and evidence suggests that older women with gynaecological
cancers are less likely to receive current standard of care treatment options. Despite
this, older women are under-represented in practice changing clinical studies. The
evidence for efficacy and tolerability is therefore extrapolated from a younger; often
more fit population and applied to in every day clinical practice to older patients
with co-morbidities. There has been significant progress in the development of geriatric
assessment in oncology to predict treatment outcomes and tolerability however there
is still no clear evidence that undertaking a geriatric assessment improves patient
outcomes. Clinical trials focusing on treating older patients are urgently required.
In this review, we discuss the evidence for treatment of gynaecological cancers as
well as methods of assessing older patients for therapy. Potential biomarkers of ageing
are also summarised.
Keywords
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Article Info
Publication History
Published online: August 29, 2016
Accepted:
August 20,
2016
Received in revised form:
August 19,
2016
Received:
March 15,
2016
Identification
Copyright
© 2016 Published by Elsevier Ltd.
