Dr Sarah Wall: Putting Attention on Older Adults With Blood-Based Cancer Is Vital Moving Forward

With the population of older adults growing, it is becoming more important for providers to put attention on older adults, who are more likely to be diagnosed with cancer and in whom blood-based cancers function differently and more aggressively, explains Sarah Wall, MD, assistant professor in the Division of Hematology at The Ohio State University.

Transcript

Why is it important to study the relationship between age and hematological diseases and hematological cancers?

It's a really important question because it affects so many people, and I think that's the easy answer. In the US, the average age of the population is continuing to rise. The estimates are that by 2030, more than two-thirds of the population will be above the age of 60. Along with that, we would expect about 70% of those older adults to be diagnosed with a cancer because cancers are often diagnosed in older people related to changes that occur with age.

For blood cancers, in particular, it's also an important question because a lot of blood cancers behave differently in older adults. In acute myeloid leukemia, for example, there has been research looking at the differences in disease genetic markers, between patients younger than 60 and older than 60. Patients who are older than 60 with the same mutations as the younger group will behave differently and often will have more aggressive disease features. These are important things to take into consideration when you're treating these patients, that even though they may look the same by mutational status, the age may make a difference.