Age Not a Factor in Cancer Survival

Age is not an independent factor in cancer survival rates and should not influence decisions about how to treat older patients, researchers in Spain said.

Dr. Eva Domingo of the Hospital Vall d’Hebron, in Barcelona, Spain, and colleagues at the University of Barcelona studied 224 patients diagnosed with cancerous tumors.

The patients ranged from age 32 to 92 and three-quarters of them were male. Sixty-one percent of the patients were age 65 or older.

The researchers found four independent factors that played a significant role in predicting patient survival:

— Metastatic dissemination, which measures how widely the cancer has spread.

— The level of functional impairment the patient experienced.

— The patient’s physical quality of life.

— Serum albumin levels, a major protein that is produced in the liver and is essential for maintaining pressure in the vascular system.

The study, published in the the International Journal of Clinical Practice, found patients had better survival rates if they had a good physical quality of life and fewer problems with functional impairment.

“The patient’s age was not an independent factor that predicted how likely they were to survive cancer,” Domingo said in a statement. “Because of this, age, in itself, should not be used to limit diagnostic or therapeutic decisions.”