Clinical trials in the elderly. Should we do more?

Much of the information on which treatment decisions are based in elderly patients is derived from studies involving younger adults. The benefit to risk ratio of any given intervention may be quite different in frail older patients with significant comorbidities, and the applicability of such study findings to routine geriatric medical practice is therefore limited. The recruitment of significant numbers of elderly patients into trials is necessary to enable clinicians to make informed and rational therapeutic decisions in this expanding population.