Culture, ethnicity, and race: Persistent disparities in older women with breast cancer

Abstract

The elderly population, arbitrarily defined as adults older than 65 years, is rapidly increasing worldwide, and is changing with regard to physical, psychological, and sociocultural dimensions. In 2005, the World Health Organization in its International Plan of Action on Aging established that disease prevention and treatment in the elderly is a global health priority and approved a Resolution on Cancer Control worldwide. Sixty percent of all cancers in the western world are diagnosed in people over the age of 65, and two thirds of all cancer mortality worldwide occurs in this age group. Due to longer life expectancy and improved cancer care, cancer in the elderly is also becoming more frequent in developing countries and will be the number one cause of death worldwide by 2010 (World Health Orgnanization 2005a, b, 2008). On April 14, 2008, the IOM issued the document Retooling for an Aging America: building the Health Care Workforce that describes geriatric care in terms of a crisis and a challenge in the US (Institute of Medicine 2008). According to the report, the elderly are the fastest growing population segment, now comprising 12% of the U.S. population, and projected to almost double between 2005 and 2030, from 37 to 70 million, with a substantial increase in the number of persons older than 80. Many international agencies and institutions, including the National Institute of Aging, have begun to systematically question existing assumptions and prejudices in geriatric oncology to transform it into an active field of research, education, and organizational changes. © 2010 Springer-Verlag London.