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Background: Older women with breast cancer frequently experience toxicity‐related hospitalizations during adjuvant chemotherapy. Although the geriatric assessment can identify those at risk, its use in clinic remains limited. One simple, low‐cost marker of vulnerability in older persons is fall history. Here, the authors examined whether falls prechemotherapy can identify older women at risk for toxicity‐related hospitalization during adjuvant chemotherapy for breast cancer. Methods: In a prospective study of women >65 years old with stage I–III breast cancer treated with adjuvant chemotherapy, the authors assessed baseline falls in the past 6 months as a categorical variable: no fall, one fall, and more than one fall. The primary end point was incident hospitalization during chemotherapy attributable to toxicity. Multivariable logistic regression was used to examine the association between falls and toxicity‐related hospitalization, adjusting for sociodemographic, disease, and geriatric covariates. Results: Of the 497 participants, 60 (12.1%) reported falling before chemotherapy, and 114 (22.9%) had one or more toxicity‐related hospitalizations. After adjusting for sociodemographic, disease, and geriatric characteristics, women who fell more than once within 6 months before chemotherapy had greater odds of being hospitalized from toxicity during chemotherapy compared to women who did not fall (50.0% vs. 20.8% experienced toxicity‐related hospitalization, odds ratio, 4.38; 95% confidence interval, 1.66–11.54, p =.003). Conclusions: In this cohort of older women with early breast cancer, women who experienced more than one fall before chemotherapy had an over 4‐fold increased risk of toxicity‐related hospitalization during chemotherapy, independent of sociodemographic, disease, and geriatric factors. In this study, nearly one in four older women with early breast cancer experienced toxicity‐related hospitalization during chemotherapy. Women who reported more than one fall in the 6 months leading up to chemotherapy had a greater than four times higher odds of experiencing toxicity‐related hospitalization during treatment than women who reported no falls. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This review describes the barriers and challenges faced by older adults of color with cancer and highlights methods to improve their overall care. In the next decade, cancer incidence rates are expected to increase in the United States for people aged ≥65 years. A large proportion will be older adults of color who often have worse outcomes than older White patients. Many issues contribute to racial disparities in older adults, including biological factors and social determinants of health (SDOH) related to healthcare access, socioeconomic concerns, systemic racism, mistrust, and the neighborhood where a person lives. These disparities are exacerbated by age‐related challenges often experienced by older adults, such as decreased functional status, impaired cognition, high rates of comorbidities and polypharmacy, poor nutrition, and limited social support. Additionally, underrepresentation of both patients of color and older adults in cancer clinical research results in a lack of adequate data to guide the management of these patients. Use of geriatric assessments (GA) can aid providers in uncovering age‐related concerns and personalizing interventions for older patients. Research demonstrates the ability of GA‐directed care to result in fewer treatment‐related toxicities and improved quality of life, thus supporting the routine incorporation of validated GA into these patients' care. GA can be enhanced by including evaluation of SDOH, which can help healthcare providers understand and address the needs of older adults of color with cancer who face disparities related to their age and race. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The treatment of metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC) has changed substantially in the last 2 decades, but to the authors' knowledge, the effect of age and comorbidities on chemotherapy use has not been well studied to date.Methods: Patients with mCRC who were being treated with 5-fluorouracil (5-FU)-based chemotherapy between January 1995 to December 2009 were studied using the LifeLink Health Plan Claims Database. The cohort was divided into older (aged >70 years) and younger (aged ≤70 years) patients. The Charlson Comorbidity Index (CCI) was used to assess comorbidity burden. The Wilcoxon and chi-square tests were used in univariate and logistic regression in multivariate analyses.Results: A total of 16,087 patients were identified, with 24% of the patients who were receiving chemotherapy being aged >70 years. The percentage of patients with a CCI >1 receiving chemotherapy increased over time (14% in 1996 vs 40% after 2004; P<.05). Older patients were less likely to receive treatment with >2 agents compared with younger patients (15% vs.22% and 11% vs.16%, respectively, in 2003 and 2009; P<.001). After approval by the US Food and Drug Administration in 1998, the use of irinotecan was lower in older compared with younger patients, a difference that resolved by 2002 (15% vs 38% [P<.05]; 62% in both groups [P = .9], respectively). Similarly, oxaliplatin was used more frequently in younger patients in 2003 (22% vs 15%; P<.05), with a decrease in this difference noted by 2009 (64% vs 60%; P = .95). On multivariate analysis, older age (odds ratio, 0.65; P<.001) and a CCI >1 (odds ratio, 0.84; P<.001) were found to be associated with a lower likelihood of receiving combination chemotherapy.Conclusions: In this commercially insured population, the percentage of older patients treated for mCRC was low, and the rate of chemotherapy adoption was found to lag behind that of younger patients. However, the percentage of older patients with comorbidities receiving therapy increased over time. Cancer 2016;122:3191-8. © 2016 American Cancer Society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nutritional issues among older adults with cancer are an understudied area of research despite significant prognostic implications for treatment side effects, cancer-specific mortality, and overall survival. In May of 2015, the National Cancer Institute and the National Institute on Aging co-sponsored a conference focused on future directions in geriatric oncology research. Nutritional research among older adults with cancer was highlighted as a major area of concern as most nutritional cancer research has been conducted among younger adults, with limited evidence to guide the care of nutritional issues among older adults with cancer. Cancer diagnoses among older adults are increasing, and the care of the older adult with cancer is complicated due to multimorbidity, heterogeneous functional status, polypharmacy, deficits in cognitive and mental health, and several other non-cancer factors. Due to this complexity, nutritional needs are dynamic, multifaceted, and dependent on the clinical scenario. This manuscript outlines the proceedings of this conference including knowledge gaps and recommendations for future nutritional research among older adults with cancer. Three common clinical scenarios encountered by oncologists include (1) weight loss during anti-cancer therapy, (2) malnutrition during advanced disease, and (3) obesity during survivorship. In this manuscript, we provide a brief overview of relevant cancer literature within these three areas, knowledge gaps that exist, and recommendations for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Identifying knowledge gaps and research opportunities in cancer and aging research was the focus of a three-part conference series led by the Cancer and Aging Research Group from 2010 to 2015. The third meeting, featured representatives from the NIA, NCI, ACS and PCORI each of whom discussed research priorities and funding opportunities in cancer and aging at their respective agencies. This manuscript reports on the proceedings of that conference with a specific focus on funding priorities for interventions to improve the quality of life and survivorship of older adults with cancer. Helpful tips from each funder regarding writing a scientifically strong research proposal are presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background Older patients with metastatic pancreatic cancer (mPC) are poorly represented in clinical trials. We compared patterns of care and outcomes of patients with mPC < and > 65 yrs (Group 1 and Group 2, respectively) treated at Fox Chase Cancer Center (FCCC) to identify predictors of survival and better understand the treatment approaches. Methods Charts of 579 patients with mPC treated at FCCC from 2000 to 2010 were reviewed. Group 1 and Group 2 were compared with respect to baseline, treatment characteristics, and overall survival (OS) after diagnosis of metastatic disease. Results 299 patients in Group 1 (median age 57) and 280 patients in Group 2 (median age 73) were evaluated. Patients in Group 2 were less likely to receive any chemotherapy for mPC compared to Group 1 (65% vs 75%, p = 0.001) and if treated were less likely to receive more than one agent (37% vs 53%, p < 0.001). Survival was comparable between the two groups ( p = 0.16) and Charlson Co-morbidity Index did not emerge as a prognostic factor. Longer OS was associated with higher number of agents used in both groups ( p < 0.001). Liver metastases conferred worse survival ( p = 0.02) while lung metastases conferred better survival in both groups ( p = 0.002). Conclusions Older mPC patients are less likely to receive chemotherapy and receive fewer agents yet have similar OS compared to younger patients. OS improves with increasing number of agents, supporting the use of combination chemotherapy in healthy older patients. Our findings encourage enrollment of older patients with mPC with good performance status onto clinical trials with stratification by site of metastases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]