多数癌症发生在老年人身上，并且这个年龄组的负担正在增加。过去二十年间，关于如何最好地治疗这一人群的证据迅速增加。然而，新的最佳实践的实施进展缓慢，需要政策制定者的参与。本文从学术角度解释了老年癌症患者与整体人群的不同需求。概述了老年癌症患者的推荐治疗方法及其对临床结果和成本效益的益处。在老年患者中，老年评估（GA）是评估身体素质水平和确定治疗可耐受性的金标准。GA涵盖了身体健康、功能状态、心理健康和社会环境因素等多个领域，以防止不适当的肿瘤治疗，并推荐老年干预措施，优化患者的总体健康状况，增强其接受治疗的抵抗力。多项研究证明了它的益处，如毒副作用减少、生活质量提高、患者中心沟通更好以及医疗资源使用降低。尽管GA可能需要投入时间和资源，但与改善的结果、可能的成本节约以及整体肿瘤治疗的巨大成本相比，这是相对较小的。© 2023 武汉大学全球健康研究所。

Most cancers occur in older people and the burden in this age group is increasing. Over the past two decades the evidence on how best to treat this population has increased rapidly. However, implementation of new best practices has been slow and needs involvement of policymakers. This perspective paper explains why older people with cancer have different needs than the wider population. An overview is given of the recommended approach for older people with cancer and its benefits on clinical outcomes and cost-effectiveness. In older patients, the geriatric assessment (GA) is the gold standard to measure level of fitness and to determine treatment tolerability. The GA, with multiple domains of physical health, functional status, psychological health and socio-environmental factors, prevents initiation of inappropriate oncologic treatment and recommends geriatric interventions to optimize the patient's general health and thus resilience for receiving treatments. Multiple studies have proven its benefits such as reduced toxicity, better quality of life, better patient-centred communication and lower healthcare use. Although GA might require investment of time and resources, this is relatively small compared to the improved outcomes, possible cost-savings and compared to the large cost of oncologic treatments as a whole.© 2023. Wuhan University Global Health Institute.