Remote geriatric assessment program for older patients starting new chemotherapy treatment in Brazil.

Authors

Cristiane Decat Bergerot

Cristiane Decat Bergerot

Centro de Cancer de Brasilia, Instituto Unity de Ensino e Pesquisa, Brasilia, Brazil

Cristiane Decat Bergerot , Paulo Gustavo Bergerot , Marianne Razavi , Sabri Lakhdari , Errol James Philip , Marcos V S Franca , Lorena Nascimento Manrique Molina , Alici Natalia de Sousa Freitas , Mariane Cunha Taveira , Andressa Cardoso Azeredo , William Hiromi Fuzita , Cristiano Menezes Fernandes , Raquel Baptista Pio , Romildo De Araujo Periera Filho , Milena Macedo Couto , Vitor Fiorin de Vasconcellos , Joao Nunes Matos Neto , Marco Murilo Buso , Enrique Soto Pérez de Celis , William Dale

Organizations

Centro de Cancer de Brasilia, Instituto Unity de Ensino e Pesquisa, Brasilia, Brazil, City of Hope Comprehensive Cancer Center, Duarte, CA, Clinica Medica Cronos, Brasilia, Brazil, University of California-San Francisco School of Medicine, San Francisco, CA, CETTRO, Brasilia, Brazil, Centro de Cancer de Brasilia, Brasilia, Brazil, Hospital De Clinicas De Porto Alegre, Porto Alegre, Brazil, SENSUMED Oncology Clinic and Image Diagnosis, Manaus, Brazil, Centro Pernambucano de Oncologia, RECIFE, Brazil, Medquimheo - Oncologia e Hematologia, Vitoria, Brazil, HUB-UnB CETTRO, Brasilia, DF, Brazil, Instituto Nacional de Ciencias Medicas y Nutrición Salvador Zubirán, Mexico City, Mexico, City of Hope National Medical Center, Duarte, CA

Research Funding

Conquer Cancer Foundation of the American Society of Clinical Oncology

Background: Older cancer patients in developing countries face considerable challenges in obtaining access to specialized medical attention, often due to a lack of human resources and healthcare infrastructure. This study sought to explore the benefit of a remote, validated geriatric assessment (GA) program for older patients starting chemotherapy in Brazil. Methods: Older adults (65+ years) beginning a new chemotherapy treatment regimen in Brazil were recruited. Through telehealth, patients were assessed with GA before starting chemotherapy treatment for any type of solid cancer and at a follow-up visit (3 months after enrollment). GA results were discussed by a multidisciplinary team (e.g., geriatrician, psychologist, nutritionist) and recommendations were determined. Outcome measures included chemo toxicity scores (CARG, scale 0-19), physical symptoms (FACT-G, scale 0-108) and activities of daily living (IADL, scale 0-5 for men and 0-8 for women, or scale 0-1 for IADL ratio). Descriptive statistics were generated, and paired t-tests were used to evaluate the change in these measures over time. Results: A total of 51 older patients from 5 different Brazilian states (Amazonas, Distrito Federal, Espirito Santo, Pernambuco and Rio Grande do Sul) have been enrolled to date. The mean distance from a patients’ home to their place of cancer treatment was 21 miles (range: 3-101 miles). Participants had a mean age of 76.5 years (SD = 7.6) and were predominantly female (57%), white (57%), married (61%), and had a high school degree or more (65%). Patients were mostly diagnosed with gastrointestinal (39%) or gynecological (20%) cancers; 55% of patients were diagnosed with a stage IV disease. The majority of patients (80%) were referred to appropriate remote services based on the GA; including geriatricians (41%), nutritionists (39%) and/or psychologist (16%). At the time of abstract submission, data from 34 complete cases were available for longitudinal analysis, in which we observed a decrease in chemo toxicity scores (M1= 6.65, M2= 5.88, p = 0.035) and an improvement in FACTG (M1= 92.94, M2= 98.53, p < 0.001). The improvement in IADL ratio was not significant (M1= 0.79, M2= 0.85, p = 0.069). Conclusions: This novel, ongoing study is, to our knowledge, the first to implement a remote GA program in Brazil. Our preliminary findings suggest that a remote GA program, with appropriate referrals to specialists, may increase the reach of supportive services and improve cancer care in developing countries.

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Abstract Details

Meeting

2022 ASCO Annual Meeting

Session Type

Poster Session

Session Title

Symptoms and Survivorship

Track

Symptom Science and Palliative Care

Sub Track

Geriatric Models of Care

Citation

J Clin Oncol 40, 2022 (suppl 16; abstr 12052)

DOI

10.1200/JCO.2022.40.16_suppl.12052

Abstract #

12052

Poster Bd #

298

Abstract Disclosures

Funded by Conquer Cancer

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