Prof Lodovico Balducci speaks ecancer’s meeting on blood cancer in elderly patients to be held in Rome, March 18-20th 2011. Haematological cancers occur primarily in older cancer patients and this meeting will help clinicians find out what treatment options are available for older patients suffering from haematological cancers. Prof Balducci explains how patient response, treatment options and suitability for diagnostic tests vary between older and younger patients, discusses the importance of determining patients' true physiological age and identifies the need for a framework to guide clinicians when treating older patients with haematological cancers.