Issues in the management of esophageal cancer and geriatric patients

Esophageal cancer is a disease occurring in older adults and given the aging population, the incidence of cancer in the elderly will continue to rise. However, older patients are less likely to receive treatment for their cancers based on age alone. There are limited data and guidelines for how to manage the older patient population but elderly patients can derive benefit from treatment. This review will describe issues specific to older patients with esophageal cancer with a focus on the utilization of geriatric assessment (GA) tools and how to apply geriatric principles to this cancer patients.