Symptoms And Treatment Of Elderly Patients - 1781 Words

Patient factors include age, gender, education, ethnicity, socio-economic status and how much patient knows about cancer and cancer symptoms. Age appears to be the major determinants of cancer survival. Cancer survival rate for almost all types of cancers decrease significantly with age. Research has shown that elderly patients generally do not receive the same standard of treatments and care, as compared to younger patients. Elderly patients are also reported to be less likely to receive surgery and the most effective treatment than younger people irrespective of the co-morbidities. This is because healthcare professionals tend to make decisions based on the assumptions that older patients will not be able to cope with certain treatments†¦show more content†¦Cancer signs are often mistaken as the symptoms of their mental health condition or side effects of the medications they are taking. This ultimately leads to a poorer cancer prognosis in the UK. (Independent Cancer Task force, 2015) The Black and Minor Ethnic (BME) communities also reported a worse treatment and care experience compare to other race groups. However, links between race and cancer are often complex and vary between different populations. (Department of Health, 2010) Health inequalities can be clearly seen in the uptake variation of screening programmes available in England. For instance, 23% of BME women claimed that they have never had a cervical screening as compared to 14% of white women at screening age. (Jo’s Cervical Cancer Trust, 2012) Other than that, communication and public awareness about cancer is crucial in improving cancer outcome. It has been proven that good communication between healthcare professionals and patients aids in early diagnosis, increase in patients’ self management, decrease emergency admissions, decrease health inequalities and appears to save cost for the NHS as well. The 2010 Cancer Patient Experience Survey highlights that there are man y patients do not understand the doctors and nurses about their diagnosis and conditions most of the time. Also, a significant number of patients state that there is always not