In the near future increasing number of elderly patients with haematological malignancies will require chemotherapy and/or radiotherapy. The high dose or even standard chemotherapy usually results in higher, than in younger patients, percentage of life-threatening myelosupression and deaths. This phenomenon in elderly patients is not clear. There are reports suggesting that in elderly patients age-related changes are not so different comparing to younger subjects. In elderly patients anti-tumour response is reduced but function of dendritic cells in these patients is preserved.

One of the immune surveillance mechanisms to protect the human body against the development of cancer is the presence of monoclonal IgM natural antibodies in the circulation. Routine immunosuppression is a wonderful occasion to carcinogenesis. Such a situation occurs for example after viral infections or is caused by smoking cigarettes. In addition, a growing cancer induces immunological tolerance.