Dr. Tracey Evans on Chemotherapy for the Elderly Patient

Tracey Evans, MD, Associate Professor of Clinical Medicine University of Pennsylvania Health System, discusses how to determine which patients will benefit from chemotherapy.

The elderly, who are defined as those aged 65 or older, have historically not been considered good candidates for chemotherapy, Evans says. Because of this, they are often denied chemotherapy or given more gentle chemotherapy regimen.

Evans says more recent studies have shown that physiologic age is more important than chronological age. While elderly patients tend to experience more toxicities with chemotherapy​, they see the same survival benefit from platinum-based doublet chemotherapy as non-elderly patients.