Clinical decision making in cancer care: a review of current and future roles of patient age.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Patient age is among the most controversial patient characteristics in clinical decision making. In personalized cancer medicine it is important to understand how individual characteristics do affect practice and how to appropriately incorporate such factors into decision making. Some argue that using age in decision making is unethical, and how patient age should guide cancer care is unsettled. This article provides an overview of the use of age in clinical decision making and discusses how age can be relevant in the context of personalized medicine.

Methods

We conducted a scoping review, searching Pubmed for English references published between 1985 and May 2017. References concerning cancer, with patients above the age of 18 and that discussed age in relation t

SUBMITTER: Tranvag EJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5944161 | biostudies-literature | 2018 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature