AGING AND PHARMACOLOGY

Research on aging and pharmacology in humans has been termed geriatric clinical pharmacology, which is an established subdiscipline within t he broad field of clinical pharmacology. This article reviews informat ion relevant to clinical cancer research and the care of older patient s with cancer. Accordingly, the current state of knowledge on drug uti lization, pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics, adverse drug events, dru g interactions, polypharmacy, adherence to treatment, and clinical res earch considerations are reviewed. Although a review of the literature on aging and cancer chemotherapy is not included in this particular p resentation information is very sparse. Thus, there is significant pot ential for valuable contributions from clinical research through partn erships between geriatric clinical pharmacologists and medical oncolog ists. (C) 1997 American Cancer Society.