众所周知,癌症是一种随着年龄呈高发状态的疾病,超过60％的新发癌症病例和三分之二的癌症死亡病例发生在高龄人群。通过对四种主要的癌症(乳腺癌、肺癌、结肠癌、前列腺癌)的调查数据显示,随着年龄的增长,发病率随之增加,仅在一年中高龄人群的发病数就达到100万人。 尽管发病率居高不下,但是许多人并没有得到有效的治疗。在英国大约40％年龄高于75岁的癌症患者均采取缓解疼痛的保守疗法,这样做的原因是医生们大多认为针对高龄患者的积极治疗相对于其 It is well-known that cancer is a disease that develops with age. More than 60% of newly diagnosed cancer cases and two thirds of cancer deaths occur in the elderly. According to the survey data of the four main types of cancer (breast, lung, colon and prostate), the incidence increases with age and the incidence of the elderly population reaches one million in only one year people. Although the incidence is high, many people have not been treated effectively. Approximately 40% of cancer sufferers in the UK who are older than 75 years of age are treated conservatively with pain relief because the majority of physicians think the aggressive treatment for elderly patients relative to their