Search

The knowledge of Geriatric Oncology requires some information on her history.Thanks to the effort of investigators throughout the world, embattled but undeterred by the objection of a cautious establishment, geriatric oncology has provided a blueprint for the treatment of the most common form of cancer: cancer in the older person. The history of Geriatric Oncology may be divided in three periods: Prehistory,Past and Contemporay history.

Despite efforts to implement learner competencies in gerontological nursing, a significant knowledge-attitude disassociation remains, with few students interested in pursuing careers in the care of older adults. One reason may be the lack of well-qualified faculty who can design engaging learning experiences with older adults and serve as positive role models for aging care. In response, the National Hartford Center of Gerontological Nursing Excellence commissioned the development of core competencies and a recognition program for educators in gerontological nursing. The goal of these competencies is to promote quality instruction in the care of older adults by describing a set of preferred skills characterizing faculty teaching gerontological content to nursing and interprofessional learners. These educator-focused competencies can guide individual career development for new and current educators who specialize in teaching about the care of older adults. They provide direction for selecting well-prepared individuals for gerontological nursing teaching positions and evaluating educator role performance. This paper describes the development of seven core competencies for nurse educators who teach in academic and professional development programs, as well as criteria for their recognition. An iterative development process was used to define the core competencies, along with descriptions and exemplars of each domain.

Objective Fatigue has multiple causes but the pathogenesis is not completely understood. Fatigue is one of the worst threats to the functional independence of older individuals. The aim of this study is to establish an association between fatigue, anemia and functional dependence in older cancer patients receiving chemotherapy. Materials and methods Patients aged 70 years or older with a diagnosis of metastatic malignancy were enrolled. All patients were evaluated at the beginning and after 3 months of treatment. A comprehensive geriatric assessment and Fatigue Symptom Inventory (FSI) were used at the beginning and at the end of the study. Results The final sample involved 129 patients. Almost all fatigue scores had a significant increase from the beginning to the end of treatment. IADLs and PS decreased significantly between the baseline and the final evaluations. The worsening in severity of fatigue, anemia, the increase in interference with daily living as well as the hours of fatigue during the day were associated with disabilities in IADLs. The decline in creatinine value was the only parameter associated with PS. Conclusions Fatigue is almost universal in older cancer patients at the end of chemotherapy treatment and is associated with functional dependence, especially IADLs. We also established an independent correlation of anemia and functional dependence in older individuals.

To address the emerging concern of oncologists who can expect to see an increasing number of older cancer patients with dementia, this retrospective case-control study compared a sample of older cancer patients with cognitive impairment (N=86) to a non-cognitively impaired control group (N=172) as to patterns of care and survival by age, site and stage. Treatment patterns presented much less differences between both groups than in other series. After adjusting for age, sex, performance status, ADLs/IADLs and comorbidity, results showed significantly greater survival (values p