The mission of the City of Hope Cancer and Aging Research Program is to join investigators from all cancer disciplines to study the biology, treatment, and survivorship issues which face older adults with cancer. The results of this research will be applicable to the majority of patients with cancer because approximately 60% of cancer diagnoses and 70% of cancer mortality occur in patients over the age of 65. The number of older patients with cancer and cancer survivors is rapidly growing because the US population is aging with a projected doubling in the number of patients age 65 and older by 2030. Furthermore, this also presents a growing trend in the number of older adults who become caregivers. Although the majority of cancers occur in older adults, these patients have been under-represented in the national cancer clinical trials which set the standards for oncology care. Few studies have specifically focused on the unique issues which face older adults such as the impact of age related declines in physiology, polypharmacy, or impact of comorbid medical conditions on treatment tolerance. The City of Hope Cancer and Aging Research Program was developed in November 2006 in order to address these geriatric oncology research priorities. Within this Core, the projects join investigators from disciplines across our cancer center including medical oncology, population sciences, surgery, pharmacology, basic science, nursing, and biostatistics. In addition, in order to foster nationwide collaborative research in geriatric oncology, the Cancer and Aging Research Program has developed a nationwide consortium of geriatric oncology investigators, entitled the """"""""Cancer and Aging Research Group."""""""" The goal of this group is to join geriatric oncology researchers across the nation in a collaborative effort of designing and implementing clinical trials in older adults in order to improve the care of older adults with cancer as well as to promote the development of academic geriatric oncologists who will continue to sustain the field of geriatric oncology.[6]
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