Cancer in Elderly People: Workshop Proceedings (2007)
Chapter: 1 Introduction
1
Introduction
Proceedings of a workshop presented to the Institute of Medicine’s (IOM) National Cancer Policy Forum (NCPF) on October 30, 2006, are the result of discussions at a previous meeting on June 16, 2006. That discussion, led by NCPF members Betty Ferrell and Patricia Ganz, noted that a high proportion of cancer occurs primarily in older persons. Incidence of the major cancers increases with advancing age. Moreover, the expansion of the aging population of the United States will likely have far-reaching effects on the health status of Americans and the nation’s healthcare system, particularly in persons 65 and older. Drs. Ferrell and Ganz proposed that the NCPF could provide a useful review of the various important implications of changing demographics and the cancer disease burden in the United States. They volunteered to work with staff to organize and lead a workshop on the subject. The agenda is reproduced in the appendix to these proceedings. Chapter 2 includes presentations of scheduled speakers as well as comments from speakers, NCPF members, and invited participants. The transcriptions are edited to eliminate redundancy and grammatical errors. Selections from PowerPoint presentations are added to the text to clarify speakers’ messages.
This workshop was a major part of the regularly scheduled meeting of the NCPF. The NCPF was established as a unit of the IOM on May 1, 2005, with support from the National Cancer Institute, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, the Food and Drug Administration, the Centers for Medicare and
Medicaid Services, the Health Resources and Services Administration, the American Cancer Society, the American Society of Clinical Oncology, C-Change, and UnitedHealth Group. The NCPF is a successor to the National Cancer Policy Board (1997–2005); it is designed to provide 22 governmental, industry, academic, and other members a venue for exchanging information and presenting individual views on emerging policy issues in the nation’s effort to combat cancer. Publication of these proceedings not only informs the NCPF, it also provides an opportunity to make the information and views presented and discussed available to a broad public audience. Deliberations actually communicated within the workshop are reported without additional comment, interpretation, or analysis. These proceedings may serve as an opening to additional IOM study in the future.
