Elderly Colon Cancer Patients Fare No Worse From Chemotherapy Side Effects Than Younger Patients, Study Finds

A recent study of 3,351 colon cancer patients has found that chemotherapy following surgery "can benefit" the elderly "as much as" younger patients, the AP/New York Times reports. For the study, which is published in this week's New England Journal of Medicine, researchers from the Mayo Clinic and six other research sites in North America and Europe "pooled" seven studies comparing patients who had "surgery alone" to treat colon cancer to those who had surgery followed by chemotherapy, considered to be "the standard treatment" for colon cancer (AP/New York Times, 10/11). Researchers found that chemotherapy increased the "overall" rate of those who survived for five years or more from 64% to 71%. Though the increase "seem[s] small," Daniel J. Sargent, Mayo Clinic statistician and lead researcher, said that the seven percentage point "improvement in a disease as prevalent as colorectal cancer results in the saving of thousands of lives each year." Although some physicians are "reluctant" to prescribe chemotherapy to patients over 65, and some elderly patients "rejec[t]" the idea themselves, the AP/Baltimore Sun reports that the study, which involved participants whose cancer had spread, found that older patients "generally tolerated" chemotherapy and its side effects equally as well as younger patients. "Older people will sometimes say, 'I'm not sure I'll save enough years of life to make that worth it to me,'" Dr. Richard Golberg, cancer researcher and co-author of the study, said. Dr. Harmon Eyre, chief medical officer for the American Cancer Association, said, "[D]octors need to ... not give in to the knee-jerk reaction, 'Oh, they're older. Let's not give them chemotherapy" (AP/Baltimore Sun, 10/11).