Elderly population is expanding at a rate never seen before. The risk of developing cancer rises with longevity. Surgeons will have to learn to deal with rising geriatric cancer burden.The treatment of choice for solid cancers regardless of the age is surgery. Prevalence of co-morbidity in the elderly enhances the risk of treatment related complication. Discriminating fit from frail elderly patients is difficult in the absence of a reliable tool to appraise preoperative functional health. Appraisal of the "functional age" instead of "chronological age" facilitates counseling for...