Hematological malignancies are typical diseases of the elderly. The aging of the population in the Western World results in a significant increase in the number of elderly patients with hematological malignant diseases. This has important consequences for medicine. One consequence of this development is that the need for tools for the evaluation of both functional and global status of the elderly increases. The use of these tools enables the hematologist to better stratify the patients, to individualize therapy better, to possibly modify therapy in order to improve implementation of supportive measures and interventions, to minimize toxicity and side effects and ultimately to tailor the treatment to the individual patient. Several tools are available for geriatric assessment (GA) and there is strong evidence that an effective GA can detect previously unknown problems. The targeted intervention improves the prognosis and compliance of therapy in elderly patients with hematological malignant diseases.
Keywords: Chemotherapy; Interdisciplinary health team; Myelodysplastic syndrome; Toxicity; Vulnerable populations.