Intensive care unit outcomes in elderly cancer patients.

As the number of elderly patients receiving oncologic therapies increases, the need for better outcome predictors for the critically ill elderly with cancer increases. Physicians should not view age as an indicator of poor ICU outcome, as many elderly patients with cancer will derive the same benefit from intensive care as their younger counterparts. Such a gain can be accomplished without overuse of valuable resources. Similar prognostic factors that are applied to the younger cancer patients should also be applied to the elderly. These parameters, in addition to clinical judgment, can be helpful in deciding who will benefit from ICU care regardless of age. Oncologists and critical care physicians will need to collaborate and change the paradigm of ICU care for the elderly.