Underreporting of Data on the Outcomes Among Older Adults in Cancer Clinical Trials

A study in the Journal of Geriatric Oncology observed that adults 65 and older are underrepresented in clinical cancer trials, reports Medical Xpress . This trend is compounded by underreporting of the treatment efficacy and negative effects specific to older adults. The researchers reviewed a year's worth of medical literature, and initial analysis found that more than 600 of 929 articles failed to meet the study group's inclusion criteria, while another 116 were duplicates. "When we finally finished analyzing all of the articles, we found the evidence on how you treat older adults with cancer is terrible," said the University of Cincinnati's Karlynn BrintzenhofeSzoc. "There's no evidence-based guidelines, which goes against the current focus on precision and evidence-based medicine to help treat older adults with cancer." BrintzenhofeSzoc said her team hopes to get researchers to partition different aged groups of people in trials and define their differences in terms of effectiveness, side effects, or adverse events. This would enable the medical community to implement treatment protocols that account for evidence-based research outcomes in people with different types of cancer and of younger and older individuals.