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Some cancer patients are being "written off" as too old for treatment, a charity has warned.
Macmillan Cancer Support said too many patients were assessed just by their age and not their overall fitness.
It comes as research looking at data from 1991-2010 suggests some 130,000 people diagnosed with cancer after age 65 survived for more than 10 years.
NHS England acknowledged that it needed to deliver better services to people in the over-65 age group.
Macmillan Cancer Support conducted the research alongside the National Cancer Intelligence Network, found of the 130,000 who had lived with the disease for more than a decade, 8,000 had been diagnosed over the age of 80.
Despite that, many patients in the UK are being denied treatment because they are deemed too old, Macmillan said, adding that cancer survival rates in the age group are "poor".
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-25873930
Macmillan Cancer Support said too many patients were assessed just by their age and not their overall fitness.
It comes as research looking at data from 1991-2010 suggests some 130,000 people diagnosed with cancer after age 65 survived for more than 10 years.
NHS England acknowledged that it needed to deliver better services to people in the over-65 age group.
Macmillan Cancer Support conducted the research alongside the National Cancer Intelligence Network, found of the 130,000 who had lived with the disease for more than a decade, 8,000 had been diagnosed over the age of 80.
Despite that, many patients in the UK are being denied treatment because they are deemed too old, Macmillan said, adding that cancer survival rates in the age group are "poor".
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-25873930