Radiation therapy in older patients

• Published in: Periodicum biologorum Vol. 115; no. 4; p. 521
• Main Authors: ZAHIROVIĆ, DAG, SMILOVIĆ RADOJČIĆ, ĐENI, RADOJČIĆ, MILAN, FAJ, DARIO, JURKOVIĆ, SLAVEN
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Hrvatsko prirodoslovno društvo 31.12.2013
• ISSN: 0031-5362; 1849-0964

As average population life span increases number of people of older age affected with malignant tumours also increases which became significant public health issue. Main modalities in treating cancer are surgery, chemotherapy and radiation therapy. They can be used either alone or in various combinations depending on tumour type, grade of a disease, patient’s condition etc. Current radiation therapy techniques give the possibility to deliver radiotherapymore precisely andwith higher doses to the tumourmeanwhile protecting surrounding tissue and preserving the physiological function of the regions in the body not involvedwith tumour. In thisway it is possible to deliver curative doses of radiation therapy in older patients without compromising their general health and conserving the life quality in satisfactory manner. Subject of this work is clinical implementation of advanced radiation therapy techniques for the cancer treatment of older patients. Thus, different systems of assessment of overall patient performance were introduced and radiotherapy of most common cancer types in elderly population was reviewed and discussed.