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BACKGROUND: Advanced age often is considered a poor prognostic factor for cervical carcinoma. The authors investigated the patterns of care and treatment outcomes of elderly women with cervical carcinoma. METHODS: A hospital-based tumor registry was used to identify patients with invasive cervical carcinoma who were treated between 1986 and 2003. Patients were divided into 2 cohorts: women age or = 70 years. Survival was examined using the Kaplan-Meier method. Single and multivariate Cox proportional hazards modeling was used to estimate hazard ratios with 95% confidence intervals (95% CI). RESULTS: In total, 1582 patients were identified, including 1385 patients age or = 70 years. The elderly patients presented with more advanced stage tumors at diagnosis (P 70 years was 2.1 (95% CI, 1.5-3.0). The hazard ratio for death from cervical carcinoma in the elderly women was 1.6 (95% CI, 1.1-2.5). CONCLUSIONS: Age is an important factor in the allocation of treatment and survival for patients with cervical carcinoma. Elderly women with cervical carcinoma are more likely to receive primary radiotherapy, to forego treatment, and to die from their disease.
Wright et al. (Thu,) studied this question.