Question

The rates for most cancer increases with age. Why does this make sense based on what you know of cancer development? How does this connect to the difficulty of treating cancer?

Emphasize how this connects to the difficulty of treating cancer.

Answer 1

The reason the risk of cancer increases with age is because the mechanisms that we have when we are younger to fight cancer deteriorate. The body’s healthy cells function best for healthy, younger tissue conditions. When this balance is changed, for instance, through oncogenic mutation, the cells no longer represent the optimum fit for the surroundings, as healthy cells in young bodies quickly become more successful than cells with cancerous mutations.When tissue is old, healthy cells are no longer a perfect fit, and mutations may help a cancer cell adapt in ways a healthy cell can’t.

Older cancer patients, losses in physical function and disability are associated with losses of functional reserve,in the presence of chemotherapy, increases the patients will experience toxic side effects. It is therefore needed to define the tolerance and response to treatment among older patients with varying levels of disability and to conduct sub-analyses describing how treatments impact patients’ functional reserves and their ability to recover their levels of functioning following the end of treatment. At last, the function, dose delays, reductions and drug stoppages needs to be carefully observed . Such information can help to estimate life expectancy and treatment tolerance, and establishes a common classification of physical function to be used to plan care for older adults.