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BACKGROUND: Cervical cancer is common in the elderly. The authors examined the patterns of care, treatment, and outcomes of elderly women with cervical cancer. METHODS: Women with cervical cancer diagnosed between 1988 and 2005 and registered in the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results database were analyzed. Patients were stratified by age: 80 years old were less likely to undergo radical hysterectomy (odds ratio OR, 0.10; 95% confidence interval CI, 0.07-0.14) and lymphadenectomy (OR, 0.11; 95% CI, 0.08-0.16) and to receive adjuvant radiation therapy (OR, 0.06; 95% CI, 0.01-0.35). Among women with stage IIB-IVA disease, use of brachytherapy declined with age (P < .0001). For women with stage IB1-IIA tumors, the hazard ratio for death from cancer was 1.35 (95% CI, 1.16-1.58) for women 70 to 79 years old and 2.08 (95% CI, 1.72-2.48) for those ≥80 years old compared with younger women. CONCLUSIONS: Elderly women with cervical cancer are less likely to undergo surgery, receive adjuvant radiation, and receive brachytherapy. After adjusting for treatment disparities, cancer-specific mortality is higher in older women.
Sharma et al. (Fri,) studied this question.