ABSTRACT
Indications for Radiotherapy in the Elderly Compared with other treatment modalities like surgery and combination chemotherapy, radiotherapy has the advantage of less severe side effects, especially rare treatment-related mortality. This becomes of particular importance in elderly or frail patients who typically present with a considerable number of clinically relevant comorbidities such as vascular problems (e.g., cardiovascular, cerebrovascular, or general arteriosclerotic vascular disease) or organ impairments [e.g., emphysema, chronic obstructive lung disease (COLD), renal insufficiency, and diabetes mellitus]. Radiotherapy represents a local modality that-in solid tumors-can be aimed at primary tumor (local disease) and involved regional lymph nodes (locoregional disease) as well as systemic points/regions of need (systemic metastases).
