Treatment of elderly patients with malignant tumors of the head and neck in our department

Abstract

This study involved 46 patients, aged 75 years or more, with malignant tumors of the head and neck who visited our department during 2 years, from April 2006 to March 2008, and who underwent close investigation and medical treatment. We investigated age and gender, primary site, histopathological classification, staging classification (2002 TNM classification) , complications, performance status (PS) , follow-up period, treatment, outcome, cumulative survival rate, and disease-specific survival rate.As a result, complications were observed in 76.1％ of cases, and treatment reduction or non-treatment in 32.6％ of cases. With regard to treatment in the elderly, we believe that treatment must be chosen after considering various factors such as complications, patient' s standby capacity, PS, life expectancy, and family environment. Furthermore, although the number of cases in this study was small, we considered that in more than half of the patients, treatment was a trigger that worsened life prognosis, even if palliative treatment was performed, and that sufficient examination and informed consent are necessary in case of palliative treatment.