Abstract

MOLINA GARRIDO, María José  and  GUILLEN PONCE, Carmen. Oncogeriatry: a way to optimize the overall care of older patients with diagnosis of cancer. Nutr. Hosp. [online]. 2016, vol.33, suppl.1, pp.31-39. ISSN 1699-5198.

There are an increasing number of elderly people diagnosed with cancer who attend consultations for Medical Oncology. The aging process and the high variability in the geriatric population mean that is due to consider the physiological age of the elderly, not the biological age. For this reason, it is necessary to make a brief, specific and individualized assessment to every older patient diagnosed with cancer who come to our consultation. Comprehensive Geriatric Assessment (CGA) is the key tool to assess properly and to promote decision making in the elderly diagnosed with cancer. Since the CGA is high time-consuming in a daily practice, they have been developed different screening tools to shorten patient care. These screening tools let the selection of those patients that have to undergo CGA. There have been various models of CGA in Oncogeriatry. There is not unanimity; and they have been developed different tools for screening of frailty in the elderly cancer, the most known being the questionnaire VES-13 and G-8 questionnaire. In this manuscript we have made a review about the scientific evidence regarding the care and assessment of older patients with cancer and the different tools to make a final decision in this group of the population. These data reflect the need of Oncogeriatry as a way to provide an optimal global attention to older patients with cancer.

Keywords : Elderly; Cancer; Oncogeriatry; Comprehensive geriatric assessment; Frailty.

        · abstract in Spanish     · text in Spanish     · Spanish ( pdf )