It is known that the aging of the world population during the twentieth century and the beginning of this new century is a first-order challenge for nations, especially in the socio-economic field. An important aspect of the aging of global population is that, for older age groups, the prevalence of degenerative diseases is also higher, including malignancies. On the other hand, among the population of patients with cancer, half of these patients will receive radiation therapy at some point in their illness and their individual characteristics can somehow influence the prognosis, the indication and daily doses of treatment prescriptions. In this context, the health assistance for the elderly patient with cancer should be seen as an important challenge, mainly due to two factors: an increased demand for treatments, in quantitative terms, and physiological characteristics unique to this population, which can influence the therapeutic decision-making. This review proposes a discussion of some relevant aspects of both the physiology of the elderly, which may influence the course of radiation therapy, as well as of some technical advances in radiotherapy, which can in turn benefit these patients by offering, for example, lower toxicity, greater effectiveness and speed.
Radiotherapy; Elderly