The research roundup provides an overview of the past week’s research from Mayo Clinic Laboratories consultants, including featured abstracts and a complete list of published studies and reviews.
Patients who are 90+ years of age are a growing - but understudied - group at risk for cancer. Because many of these patients are undertreated (with no tissue/cytologic diagnosis), we sought to better understand how such decisions are arrived upon. This study focused on patients between 2007 and 2017. None had received cancer therapy. Medical records were reviewed for quotations relevant to decision-making and analyzed qualitatively. Ninety-four patients (median age 93 years) with a cancer diagnosis/presumed diagnosis were identified; most were women (82%) with an average of six co-morbidities (dementia occurred in approximately one-third).