Our clinical experience with cancer surgery in the elderly at Assam Medical College & Hospital, Dibrugarh, Assam.

Dr. Gunabhi Ram Das; Dr.R.C.Brahma; Dr.Ratnesh Kumar; Dr. Sandeep Mudi

Volume : V, Issue : VI, June - 2016

Our clinical experience with cancer surgery in the elderly at Assam Medical College & Hospital, Dibrugarh, Assam.

Dr. Gunabhi Ram Das, Dr. R. C. Brahma, Dr. Ratnesh Kumar, Dr. Sandeep Mudi

Abstract :

 BACKGROUND: Elderly population is rising and so are people living with cancer. Should we be aggressive in surgical resections is the question of the hour. OBJECTIVE: To study incidence, sex, age distribution, diagnostics, treatment modality, prognosis of geriatric population with cancer. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A prospective study in department of general surgery with carcinoma (n=273) over 3 years. RESULTS: Almost 84.3% of advanced gall bladder carcinoma have survival of 9.7 months. In colorectal carcinoma, patient survival of stage1–88%, stageII–72%, stageIII–48%, stageIV–2%. Mean 3 year survival for early, locally advanced and metastatic east carcinoma is 78%, 18.7, 3.4 months respectively. In carcinoma stomach survival was 60% for locally advanced, 5% for metastatic. CONCLUSION: Surgeons dealing with geriatric cancers should not discriminate patients based on chronological age. Patients should be well optimised before resections to achieve similar survival rates as for the rest of population.