Enough rehabilitation for our elderly cancer patients?

One of the authors has recently published an article in the European Journal of Cancer on the management of unfit older cancer patients, yet there was still no mention made concerning the problem of rehabilitation of the elderly. For these patients, rehabilitation includes taking care of their nutritional status, their mobility, and improvement of their quality of life. While for clinical oncologists the rehabilitation of the elderly with cancer has not yet been considered an important priority, it is quite evident to geriatricians that rehabilitation in older patients requires a special approach. In fact, very little has so far been published on this issue for older cancer patients in Europe and USA. It may beworth mentioning that, to geriatricians, rehabilitation is an intervention whose purpose is to restore functional ability and enhance residual functional capability, thereby improving qualityof life in elderly peoplewith disabling impairment, which in this instance is from the cancer itself or from the cancer treatment. Of course, to establish a rehabilitative programme (patient-focused goals for rehabilitation), it is necessary to know the functional status prior to the diagnosis. It is also very important to consider the many aspects that influence the collaboration and the delivery of treatment, such as visual and hearing impairment, cognitive status (cognitive impairment, dementia), education, psychological condition (anxiety, depression), and motivation. Other geriatric syndromes must also be ascertained such as delirium, incontinence, falls, and comorbidities or inter