Study Estimates Older Adults’ Cancer Deaths After Surgery

July 6, 2021 Anita Slomski, MA JAMA. 2021;326(1):19. doi:10.1001/jama.2021.10484

Older adults with cancer were more likely to die from their disease 5 years after surgery than from other causes, a recent study showed. Although cancer remains the major mortality driver for this group, the study’s investigators emphasized that most elderly patients should not avoid surgery, as untreated cancer would result in more early deaths.

Using the Ontario Cancer Registry, the researchers examined the cause of death for 82 037 Canadian adults aged 70 years or older after they had cancer surgery. The estimated cumulative incidence of death from cancer was 8.2% at 1 year, 16.4% at 3 years, and 20.7% at 5 years after surgery. The incidence of noncancer deaths was 5.3% at 1 year, 11.9% at 3 years, and 18.1% at 5 years.

Noncancer deaths exceeded cancer deaths starting 3 years after surgery for breast, prostate, and melanoma skin cancers and among patients older than 85 years and those who were frail prior to surgery.

“Our data can be directly used to provide overall prognosis estimates specific to older adult populations with cancer, and this can be balanced against underlying life expectancy estimates without cancer,” the authors wrote in JAMA Surgery.

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