Love and frailty and an avalanche of missteps.

A retired oncologist describes the unexpected death of his wife, Claudia, who spent 25 years as head of the geriatrics service of a major VA hospital. The couple drew comfort in their orchestration of a "good death"; nevertheless they understood that her death was hastened by a number of missteps. In the 2 months following a hip fracture, a chain of complications that required five surgical interventions led to massive hemorrhage from necrotizing esophagitis.

Senotherapy, cancer, and aging.

Introduction: We aimed to highlight the effects of senotherapy on the prevention and treatment of cancer in older individuals. The aim of senotherapy is to eliminate senescent cells. These cells express the senescence-associated secretory phenotype (SASP).

Resilience in Older Adults Diagnosed With Cancer and Receiving Chemotherapy.

Background: Resilience is the capacity for physical and emotional recovery from stressful events like cancer diagnosis and treatment.

Objectives: The objectives of this study were to review existing literature to understand and illustrate ways to assess and manage resilience when providing holistic care to older adults with cancer.

Methods: A review of the literature was conducted with a focus on assessment, management, and preservation of resilience in older adults with cancer.

Pitfalls in Oncogeriatrics.

An oncogeriatric interdisciplinary activity exists only in a minority of high-income countries, and it is almost absent in those with lower incomes. Considering topics, sessions, and tracks in the main meetings and conferences of the major Oncological Societies in Europe and worldwide, the USA excluded, little attention has thus far been paid to the problem of cancer in the elderly. Again, with the exception of the USA, the major cooperative groups, for example, the EORTC in Europe, have only dedicated marginal attention to the research of cancer in the elderly.

Cell cycle arrest: A breakthrough in the supportive care of older cancer patients.

Background: Age is a major risk factor for the acute and chronic complications of cancer chemotherapy. The current approach to the prevention of these complications is reactive and involves the reduction of the doses and the delay of treatment which may compromise the outcome. There is a limited number of antidotes to chemotherapy toxicity and these have complications of their own.

A Proactive Approach to Prevent Hematopoietic Exhaustion During Cancer Chemotherapy in Older Patients: Temporary Cell-Cycle Arrest.

Age is associated with the decline of multiple organ systems. In older patients, hematological toxicities associated with chemotherapy are often dose limiting, impairing dose intensity and treatment efficacy. Contrary to the classical path using growth factors to activate tissue regeneration, a novel strategy is emerging to prevent chemotherapy toxicity that involves temporary cell-cycle arrest of normal cells, such as hematopoietic or epithelial precursors.

New Advances in Supportive Care: Chemoprotective Agents as Novel Opportunities in Geriatric Oncology.

Purpose Of Review: To explore the effectiveness of trilaciclib and ALRN-6924 in the prevention of cancer chemotherapy-induced toxicity in older patients. New chemoprotective agents are necessary because age is the main risk factor for chemotherapy complications that account largely for the poorer outcome of cancer in the elderly. Trilaciclib and ALRN-6924 cause a reversible block of the proliferation of normal cells through cell cycle arrest (CCA).

Interplays of electron and nuclear motions along CO dissociation trajectory in myoglobin revealed by ultrafast X-rays and quantum dynamics calculations.

Ultrafast structural dynamics with different spatial and temporal scales were investigated during photodissociation of carbon monoxide (CO) from iron(II)-heme in bovine myoglobin during the first 3 ps following laser excitation. We used simultaneous X-ray transient absorption (XTA) spectroscopy and X-ray transient solution scattering (XSS) at an X-ray free electron laser source with a time resolution of 80 fs. Kinetic traces at different characteristic X-ray energies were collected to give a global picture of the multistep pathway in the photodissociation of CO from heme.

Landmarks in geriatric oncology.

The knowledge of Geriatric Oncology requires some information on her history.Thanks to the effort of investigators throughout the world, embattled but undeterred by the objection of a cautious establishment, geriatric oncology has provided a blueprint for the treatment of the most common form of cancer: cancer in the older person. The history of Geriatric Oncology may be divided in three periods: Prehistory,Past and Contemporay history.

Older cancer patients and COVID-19 outbreak: Practical considerations and recommendations.

Since the COVID-19 outbreak started, it has been affecting mainly older individuals. Among the most vulnerable older individuals are those with cancer. Many published guidelines and consensus papers deal with prioritizing cancer care.

Biological and Functional Biomarkers of Aging: Definition, Characteristics, and How They Can Impact Everyday Cancer Treatment.

Purpose Of Review: Recognize which are the elements that predict why a person is aging faster or slower and which intervention we can arrange to slow down the process, which permits to prevent or delay the progression of multimorbidity and disability.

Recent Findings: Aging is a complex process that leads to changes in all the systems of the body and all the functions of the person; however, aging develops at different rates in different people, and chronological age is not always consistent with biological age. Gerontologists are focused not only on finding the best theory able to explain aging but also on identifying one or more markers, which are able to describe aging processes.

Management of The Elderly Cancer Patients Complexity: The Radiation Oncology Potential.

Radiation oncology has the potential to be an excellent option for the frail elderly cancer patients because of its limited systemic toxicities. It can be effective for curative, prophylactic, disease control or palliative purposes. Currently about 60% of all cancer patients undergoing active treatment at some point receive radiation treatment.

Interprofessional spiritual care in oncology: a literature review.

Spiritual care is recognised as an essential element of the care of patients with serious illness such as cancer. Spiritual distress can result in poorer health outcomes including quality of life. The American Society of Clinical Oncology and other organisations recommend addressing spiritual needs in the clinical setting.

An international comparison of treatment and short-term overall survival for older patients with pancreatic cancer.

Objectives: A significant proportion of patients with pancreatic cancer are over the age of 70 years. The aim was to compare treatment and survival for older patients with pancreatic cancer treated throughout the Netherlands or Moffitt Cancer Center (Tampa, Florida).

Methods: All age-eligible patients with pancreatic adenocarcinoma (2008-2012) were identified.

Dynamic multiple-scattering treatment of X-ray absorption: Parameterization of a new molecular dynamics force field for myoglobin.

We present a detailed analysis of the X-ray absorption near-edge structure (XANES) data on the Fe K-edge of CO Myoglobin based on a combined procedure of Molecular Dynamics (MD) calculations and MXAN (Minuit XANes) data analysis that we call D-MXAN. The ability of performing quantitative XANES data analysis allows us to refine classical force field MD parameters, thus obtaining a reliable tool for the atomic investigation of this important model system for biological macromolecules. The iterative procedure here applied corrects the greatest part of the structural discrepancy between classical MD sampling and experimental determinations.

Geriatric Oncology, Spirituality, and Palliative Care.

Cancer is a major cause of morbidity and mortality for older individuals. Palliative care is essential to improve the outcome of cancer treatment in terms of quality of life and treatment satisfaction. This review examines the influence of spirituality on aging in general and on the management of older cancer patients.