TY - JOUR
T1 - Concurrent chemoradiotherapy in older adults with squamous cell head & neck cancer
T2 - Evidence and management
AU - Verma, Vivek
AU - Ganti, Apar Kishor
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors all declare that conflicts of interest do not exist for any of the subject matter of this manuscript. However all funding sources for the authors, have been declared for complete transparency. A. Ganti has received research funding from Pfizer , Amgen , Newlink Genetics , Bristol-Myers Squibb , Merck Serono , Merck , and Janssen . He has served as a consultant for Otsuka, Boehringer-Ingelheim, and Biodesix.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2016 Published by Elsevier Ltd.
PY - 2016/5/1
Y1 - 2016/5/1
N2 - Objective: Treatment for head and neck cancers incurs substantial associated morbidities, which can be of potentially greater significance in older patients. Though the geriatric population forms a substantial portion of patients with head and neck cancers, this group remains underrepresented in large clinical trials. Hence, management for this unique subpopulation remains empiric and mostly based on data from younger patients. Materials and Methods: Review of key publications on geriatric patients treated for head and neck cancers. Conclusions: We discuss data regarding chemoradiation for head and neck cancers, as well as management of associated side effects in this population. We encourage oncologists to treat older patients not as a homogeneous subpopulation, but rather assess several factors associated with potential tolerance to chemoradiotherapy. Aggressive supportive treatments for chemoradiotherapy toxicities are highly encouraged in this population, and with new technical/technological developments, there is potential to continually reduce toxicity in this cohort in the future.
AB - Objective: Treatment for head and neck cancers incurs substantial associated morbidities, which can be of potentially greater significance in older patients. Though the geriatric population forms a substantial portion of patients with head and neck cancers, this group remains underrepresented in large clinical trials. Hence, management for this unique subpopulation remains empiric and mostly based on data from younger patients. Materials and Methods: Review of key publications on geriatric patients treated for head and neck cancers. Conclusions: We discuss data regarding chemoradiation for head and neck cancers, as well as management of associated side effects in this population. We encourage oncologists to treat older patients not as a homogeneous subpopulation, but rather assess several factors associated with potential tolerance to chemoradiotherapy. Aggressive supportive treatments for chemoradiotherapy toxicities are highly encouraged in this population, and with new technical/technological developments, there is potential to continually reduce toxicity in this cohort in the future.
KW - Chemotherapy
KW - Geriatrics
KW - Head and neck cancer
KW - Radiation therapy
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U2 - 10.1016/j.jgo.2016.01.010
DO - 10.1016/j.jgo.2016.01.010
M3 - Review article
C2 - 26924572
AN - SCOPUS:84959223825
VL - 7
SP - 145
EP - 153
JO - Journal of Geriatric Oncology
JF - Journal of Geriatric Oncology
SN - 1879-4068
IS - 3
ER -