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edited by Lodovico Balducci, Gary H. Lyman, William B. Ershler, and Martine Extermann, 2nd ed, 824 pp, with illus, $249.95, ISBN 1-84184-296-6, New York, NY, Taylor & Francis, London, England, Martin Dunitz, 2004.

JAMA. 2005;294:745.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

The aging of our society has created a need to disseminate information on the treatment of older patients. Persons older than 65 years are the fastest growing segment of the US population and will account for an estimated 20% of all US residents by 2030. Within that group, numbers of persons older than 85 years are growing the most rapidly.

The incidence of cancer increases with age. Cancer is now the leading cause of death among persons younger than 85 years. Persons aged 65 years and older comprise 60% of newly diagnosed patients and 70% of cancer deaths. The older patient population will soon constitute the majority of adult oncology patients. Since the first edition of Comprehensive Geriatric Oncology in 1998, there has been a surge of interest in the field, led by the editors of this edition, evident, for instance, in Hartford Foundation fellowships in geriatric oncology, the International . . . [Full Text of this Article]

Stuart M. Lichtman, MD, Reviewer
Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center
Commack, NY
lichtmas@mskcc.org