Two main reasons support this statement: the fit elderly individual has a life expectancy more than 5 years in most cases; and 80% of patients who develop relapse after resection of locoregional disease do so within 3 years, while nearly all have manifest recurrent disease within 5 years of diagnosis [28]. As a result of active treatment, there is the fact that octogenarians during last 10 years duplicate their participation in total CRC-chemotherapy from 22% to

40% [19].

Conclusion

Age itself is not a contraindication for chemotherapy. General condition of elderly patient is of essence because frail elderly with advanced disease usually don‘t benefit from this kind of treatment. Also, side effects must be care­fully monitored, because elderly patients are more prone to complications due to chemotherapy than younger patients. In the case of fit elderly, the standard chemotherapy (i.e. FOLFOX regimen) could be administered. In elderly inel­igible for combination chemotherapy, the capecitabine used orally, as a single-agent therapy, is an important therapeutic option for colorectal cancer.

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