Document Type

Article

Publication Date

3-4-2022

Comments

This article is the author’s final published version in The oncologist, Volume 27, Issue 2, March 2022, Pages e133 - e141.

The published version is available at https://doi.org/10.1093/oncolo/oyab032. Copyright © Seedor et al.

Abstract

Background: Geriatric assessment (GA) is recommended for evaluating fitness of an older adult with cancer. Our objective was to prospectively evaluate the gaps that exist in the assessment of older adults with metastatic breast cancer (OA-MBC) in community practices (CP).

Methods: Self-administered GA was compared to provider's assessment (PA) of patients living with MBC aged ≥65 years treated in CP Providers were blinded to the GA results until PA was completed. McNemar's test was used to detect differences between PA and GA.

Results: One hundred patients were enrolled across 9 CP (median age 73.9). Geriatric assessment detected a total of 356 abnormalities in 96 patients; of which, 223 required interventions. African American and widowed/single patients were more likely to have abnormalities identified by GA. On average, across 100 patients, PA did not detect 25.5% of GA-detected abnormalities, mostly in functional status, social support, nutrition, and cognition. These differences were less pronounced among providers with more clinical experience. Patients with abnormal Timed Up and Go tests more likely had additional abnormalities in other domains, and more abnormalities that were not identified by PA. Providers were "surprised" by GA results in 33% of cases, mainly with cognitive or social support findings, and reported plans for management change for 39% of patients based on GA findings.

Conclusions: Including a GA in the care of OA-MBC in CP is beneficial for the detection of multiple abnormalities not detected by routine PA.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 License

PubMed ID

35641214

Language

English

Included in

Oncology Commons

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