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Review
. 2022 Apr;32(2):98-108.
doi: 10.1016/j.semradonc.2021.11.002.

The Evolution of Geriatric Oncology and Geriatric Assessment over the Past Decade

Darryl Outlaw  1 , Maya Abdallah  2 , Luiz A Gil-Jr  3 , Smith Giri  1 , Tina Hsu  4 , Jessica L Krok-Schoen  5 , Gabor Liposits  6 , Tânia Madureira  7 , Joana Marinho  8 , Ishwaria M Subbiah  9 , Gina Tuch  10 , Grant R Williams  11
Affiliations
Review

The Evolution of Geriatric Oncology and Geriatric Assessment over the Past Decade

Darryl Outlaw et al. Semin Radiat Oncol. 2022 Apr.

Abstract

Cancer is predominantly a disease of aging, and older adults represent the majority of cancer diagnoses and deaths. Older adults with cancer differ significantly from younger patients, leading to important distinctions in cancer treatment planning and decision-making. As a consequence, the field of geriatric oncology has blossomed and evolved over recent decades, as the need to bring personalized cancer care to older adults has been increasingly recognized and a focus of study. The geriatric assessment (GA) has become the cornerstone of geriatric oncology research, and the past year has yielded promising results regarding the implementation of GA into routine cancer treatment decisions and outcomes for older adults. In this article, we provide an overview of the field of geriatric oncology and highlight recent breakthroughs with the use of GA in cancer care. Further work is needed to continue to provide personalized, evidence-based care for each older adult with cancer.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of Competing Interest

The authors have no conflict to disclose relevant to this submitted article.

Figures

Figure 1:
Figure 1:
“Iceberg” concept of cancer care for older adults: factors may be hidden; based upon the work of Jolly et al., 2016.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Timeline of milestones in the field of geriatric oncology; based upon the work of Monfardini et al., 2020 and 2021.–
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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