Drug treatment opportunities of the elderly patients with the metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer
Oncological disease in the elderly is a serious challenge to the patients health and medical staff. This is due to two main reasons. First, it is the general patient condition which weakened by the aging process, usually with the multiple co-morbidities, the second reason is conducted with multiple drugs therapy of intercurrent diseases. Most often, oncologists do not seek to prescribe anticancer drugs, and mainly it concerns chemotherapy, to patients of advanced age, fearing the excess toxicity leading to adverse effects. The age 70 years and over is that cut-off to determine the elderly patient with malignancy. If we take the cases of the metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC) many, if not the majority, are the patients older than 70 years, as well significant the number of very elderly patients aged over 80 years. The presence of the various medicinal agents in medical arsenal can significantly prolong survival, including such patients. As a rule, in randomized trials, which studied the drugs for the mCRPC treatment, the elderly patients were not actively involved and it had some reason, related to comorbidity. In this review the available data on the elderly and very elderly patients with mCRPC who received the treatment within the clinical trials are considered.