Older Patients With Colon Cancer Less Likely to Receive Chemotherapy After Surgery

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/03/100316101402.htm

ScienceDaily (Mar. 16, 2010) — Even though older patients with colon cancer are less likely to receive chemotherapy following surgery because of concerns of adverse events, new research indicates that when they do receive this treatment, it is less toxic and of shorter duration than therapy younger patients receive, and older patients experience fewer adverse events, according to a study in the March 17 issue of JAMA, a theme issue on cancer.

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Randomized trials have shown reductions in cancer death and recurrence in patients with stage III colon cancer treated with adjuvant (supplemental [after surgery]) chemotherapy, with clinical trials also showing that surgery and adjuvant chemotherapy increases survival over surgery alone in selected patients with this stage of colon cancer. But in practice, older patients with stage III colon cancer are much less likely to receive this treatment. "Physicians cite the lack of randomized controlled trials evaluating the effectiveness of adjuvant chemotherapy for patients older than 80 years as well as comorbid [co-existing illnesses] conditions and drug toxicities as the most common reasons for not treating older patients with adjuvant chemotherapy," the authors write.

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