The average age of a newly diagnosed cancer patient in the U.S. is 67.

The director of the UNC Lineberger Geriatric Oncology Program said that’s one reason he hopes to see a lot of older cancer patients and their families at a free public forum at The Friday Center on Nov. 14.

“We’ll have experts, we’ll have workshops, and forums,” said Dr. Hy Muss, director of the UNC Lineberger Geriatric Oncology Program. “We’ll have time to meet a lot of the faculty at UNC Lineberger who take care of older patients.’

That includes surgeons, oncologists, chemotherapy experts, and radiation experts.

The Friday event “Cancer and Older Adults: Care and Treatment” is free and open to the public from 1 until 5 p.m. There will be a reception afterward.

“We hope that a lot of older people that are affected with cancer will come,” said Muss, “because, frequently, they have a lot of questions they haven’t asked their doctors or nurses.”

Hy Muss spoke with Aaron Keck on WCHL last week.

 

Cancer is tough for everyone who deals with it, but it presents specific challenges for older adults, their families and their caregivers.

One of those is finding treatment options that allow older patients to maintain independence.

“We don’t want cancer treatment to take someone who’s a functional older adult, and for a very small gain, put them in assisted living, or the requirement for family care all the time,” said Muss.

He added that doctors need to take care not to either hold back treatment breakthroughs for older cancer patients, nor to go overboard with options that are too vigorous. It’s a fine balance, best achieved on a patient-by-patient basis.

“There’s a tendency to say (the patient) is old, they’re not interested in state-of-the-art treatment,” said Muss. “It’s untrue. We need to personalize it.”

And as the aging population in the U.S. continues to grow, he added, so will the number of older cancer patients.

You can register for Friday afternoon’s s event at The Friday Center here.

Or you can call 919-966-7834.