Aging, cancer, and cancer vaccines

Abstract

World population has experienced continuous growth since 1400 A.D. Current projections show a continued increase - but a steady decline in the population growth rate - with the number expected to reach between 8 and 10.5 billion people within 40 years. The elderly population is rapidly rising: in 1950 there were 205 million people aged 60 or older, while in 2000 there were 606 million. By 2050, the global population aged 60 or over is projected to expand by more than three times, reaching nearly 2 billion people [1]. Most cancers are age-related diseases: in the US, 50% of all malignancies occur in people aged 65-95. 60% of all cancers are expected to be diagnosed in elderly patients by 2020 [2]. Further, cancer-related mortality increases with age: 70% of all malignancy-related deaths are registered in people aged 65 years or older [3]. Here we introduce the microscopic aspects of aging, the pro-inflammatory phenotype of the elderly, and the changes related to immunosenescence. Then we deal with cancer disease and its development, the difficulty of treatment administration in the geriatric population, and the importance of a comprehensive geriatric assessment. Finally, we aim to analyze the complex interactions of aging with cancer and cancer vaccinology, and the importance of this last approach as a complementary therapy to different levels of prevention and treatment. Cancer vaccines, in fact, should at present be recommended in association to a stronger cancer prevention and conventional therapies (surgery, chemotherapy, radiation therapy), both for curative and palliative intent, in order to reduce morbidity and mortality associated to cancer progression.

Early Dementia Questionnaire (EDQ): A new screening instrument for early dementia in primary care practice

“…The prevalence of dementia using EDQ was 52.3%, which was significantly higher than earlier studies [1,10,22,23] and when it was measured using the MMSE (Figure 1). The higher prevalence of dementia using EDQ could be because it concentrated on recognizing very early symptoms of dementia and it did not specifically exclude MCI which could present with similar symptoms.…”

“…By the year 2050, the global population of 60 and above is expected to increase to 2 billion in 2050 [1]. In Malaysia, the definition of elderly follows the standard document published in the ‘Policy for the Elderly in Malaysia’ which defined elderly population as those over 60 years of age, adopting the criteria set at the World Assembly on Aging in Vienna in 1982 [2].…”

The impact of comorbidity and stage on prognosis of Danish melanoma patients, 1987–2009: a registry-based cohort study

“…A plausible explanation may be that adding anticancer treatment may worsen an already reduced functional status for those with severe comorbid diseases, making these patients tolerate treatment less well than people without comorbidity. The people with comorbidity score ⩾4 are older – 86% are over 55 years vs 47% of those with comorbidity score 0 – and hence reduced function of the immune system in these older patients may contribute to the interaction between comorbidity and melanoma to affect mortality (Weinberger et al , 2008; Mazzola et al , 2012). Elderly patients, who more often had comorbid conditions, are also more often diagnosed with the nodular subtype of melanoma, which develops rapidly, lacks early symptoms, and is more aggressive (Norgaard et al , 2011).…”

Do age and quality of life of patients with cancer influence quality of life of the caregiver?

“…In the setting of a rapidly aging population in the United States with an increasing number of older patients with cancer (18) an important factor to investigate is whether a patient’s age has any association with the caregiver’s QOL (19). Older cancer patients have been shown to have worse physical functioning than younger cancer patients (20, 21).…”