Abstract
As the number of elderly people has increased, the number of oral cancer patients who are of advanced age and with dementia has increased. From the experience of three cases of oral cancer patients with dementia, the following issues were revealed.
It is very difficult to take care of the patients during hospitalization, because there is difficulty in communicating with them and they cannot understand their disease and necessity of the treatment. Treatment is severely restricted due to various factors including physical conditions and dementia. Furthermore, it is difficult to gain positive cooperation of family members, which makes the treatment harder.
When making the treatment plan for patients with dementia, it is important to consider not only the stage of the tumor, general condition and complications, but also age, degree of dementia, QOL and family's preference.
