What is Psychological Management in Cancer

This chapter describes aging and the resultant effects of aging. According to WHO report 8.8 million people died from cancer worldwide in 2015. The incidence of cancers increases with age. This increase incidence may be due to biological factors, prolonged exposure to carcinogens and incidence of mutations etc. Cancers in elderly may have poor biological vulnerability, presence of various co-morbidities and poor tolerance of therapy hence treatment got compromised. Elderly cancer patients also are neglected in various trials and strong data lacks for optimal management. Other important aspect is psychosocial state of these patients. Discipline of Psycho-oncology deals with patients with cancer, their lifestyle related difficulties, negligence by self, family members and society, Lack of emotional support, poor financial assistance and treatment monitoring etc. leading to various psychological problems. This chapter will address issues of cancers in elderly including disease biology, disease characteristics, management, their quality of life etc. with reference to elderly patients suffering from cancer.