Do elderly cancer patients care about cure? Attitudes to radical gynecologic oncology surgery in the elderly.

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to address the hypothesis of no difference between elderly and younger patients' desire for optimal surgery and disease cure.
METHODS: The new ARGOSE questionnaire with established instruments was administered to 189 gynecologic cancer patients (95 aged <65, 57 aged 65-74, and 37 aged 75+ years).
RESULTS: Disease diagnosis differed between the <65 years and 65+ years cohorts (P < 0.001), but treatment modalities were similar (P = 0.28). Influences of family and friends and past experiences of cancer had little influence on treatment decisions. There was no difference between cohorts in desire for surgery offering a chance of disease cure (P = 0.75), except that the elderly desire cure more if treatment is associated with disfigurement than do the young. (P = 0.029). The elderly believe more strongly than the young that the elderly value cure (P < 0.001). Issues of sexuality and femininity associated with gynecologic cancer and treatment are more important to younger patients (P < 0.001). The elderly support equality of care with relation to age more strongly than the young. However, in a situation of resource limitation, inequality favoring the young is opposed less strongly by the elderly than by the young. Social desirability bias may have influenced this finding. All cohorts reported symptom palliation to be of secondary importance to treatments offering a possibility of cure (P = 0.26). The elderly believe more strongly that doctors should make management decisions (P < 0.001).
CONCLUSION: The elderly desire radical surgery and disease cure as strongly as the young. They are less likely to question their doctors' decisions and are therefore vulnerable to physicians' age bias. There is no justification for rationing care on the basis of chronological age. Copyright 2001 Academic Press.