October 2005

ORAL HEALTH IN OLDER MALE CANCER PATIENTS
In a recent secondary analysis of a prospective observational study published in The Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, researchers reported that mouth or tooth problems that cause difficulty eating in older male patients with cancer are associated with a greater risk of experiencing a lower quality of life, poorer emotional health, lower levels of physical functioning, and greater pain than in those without these problems.

Sally S. Ingram, MD, and coauthors assessed the surveys of 150 male community-dwelling cancer patients (...