Zacharoula Sidiropoulou, Senior Consultant Breast Surgical Oncologist at Hospital São Francisco Xavier, shared a post on LinkedIn:
“CIPOG 2026 finished yesterday.
I came back with fewer certainties which is usually a sign of a good course.
We speak often about personalised oncology but age may still be one of the characteristics we personalise less.
Two pacients can both be 78 and have almost nothing clinically important in common.
One may be independent, cognitively intact, physically active and taking two medicines.
The other may be frail, malnourished, cognitively vulnerable, taking twelve drugs and dependent on someone else to get to treatment.
Chronological age tells us remarkably little about which patient is sitting in front of us. That is the fundamental lesson of geriatric oncology.
The point is: What vulnerabilities are present? Which are reversible? What matters to this person and how can we adapt treatment and supportive care so that we neither undertreat because of age nor overtreat because a protocol says we can?
All this requires looking beyond the tumour. Function. Frailty. Cognition. Nutrition. Polypharmacy. Falls. Social support. Comorbidity. Patients own priorities.
The CIPOG 2026 programme, under the auspices of SIOG – International Society of Geriatric Oncology and the Portuguese Society of Oncology was built precisely around bringing geriatric assessment and multidisciplinary reasoning into everyday oncology practice.
Online modules and in-person practical application!
For me, the central point:
Geriatric oncology is not a separate oncology for ‘old people’. It is better oncology for people whose biological age, reserve and life priorities cannot be captured by the date on their identity card.
As our patients live longer, this approachshould not remain specialist knowledge at the margins of cancer care. It needs to become part of how all of us think.
Still learning.
Besides, of cource catching back with good friends and making new ones!!!!!”
Other posts featuring Zacharoula Sidiropoulou on OncoDaily.