Cancer in older adults in Latin America: Interdisciplinary cooperation between oncology and geriatrics

Abstract

Latin America, like the rest of the world, is currently facing the consequences of population aging. Among these consequences is a rise in incidence in malignant neoplasms among older adults, with an anticipated increase in oncologic health service require-ments in this population. Geriatric oncology is a recently created discipline which inte-grates geriatric principles into oncology care to offer older adults with cancer indivi-dualized treatments. This multidisciplinary approach is now recommended as part of routine oncology care by international associations. Although several geriatric oncology clinical, educational and research initiatives exist in Latin America, the number and availability of specialized facilities and personnel is limited in comparison to those in high-income regions. In this manuscript, we review international recommendations for the implementation of geriatric oncology principles into routine clinical practice, des-cribe resources available for geriatric oncology in Latin America, and provide recommendations to improve multidisciplinary care for older adults with cancer in the region.