CHICAGO -- Use of geriatric assessment in the routine care of older advanced cancer patients improved oncologist-patient communication and started conversations that otherwise would have been ignored, a randomized study found.
American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) guidelines recommend these assessments be used to identify vulnerabilities in geriatric patients on chemotherapy, but they are not always routinely conducted.
In this exclusive 51˶ video from the ASCO annual meeting, study author Supriya Mohile, MD, of the University of Rochester Medical Center, and three specialists -- Dale Shepard, MD, of the Cleveland Clinic; Martine Extermann, MD, PhD, of Moffitt Cancer Center at the University of South Florida in Tampa; and William Dale, MD, of City of Hope in Duarte, Calif. -- tease out the importance of this study and discuss how this 10-minute intervention could improve quality of life and save time later on by dealing with potentially avoidable effects of treatment before they occur.
Disclosures
Mohile and co-authors disclosed relationships with Seattle Genetics, GTx, Boehringer Ingelheim, On Q Health, Sanofi, OptumHealth, Pierian Biosciences, GlaxoSmithKline, Celgene, Novartis, Amgen, and AIM Specialty Health.
Extermann disclosed a relationship with GTX.
Dale had no disclosures.
Primary Source
American Society of Clinical Oncology
Mohile SG, et al "Improving communication with older patients with cancer using geriatric assessment (GA): A University of Rochester NCI Community Oncology Research Program (NCORP) cluster randomized controlled trial (CRCT)" ASCO 2018; Abstract LBA10003.